Mlp the Movie Prequel - Story of Dusty Phoenix
by NegaBoss2000
Summary: As a young foal, Twilight meets someone from beyond Equestria, a young hippogriff called Dusty Phoenix who has strange abilities but outcast as a freak and a shame on all ponies of Equestria. Being himself, will Dusty ever learn to accept who he truely is and find out his family or will he suffer in shame of being a freak?
1. The Lost Hippogriff

**Greetings once again from Negaboss2000**

 **This story is a prequel to MLP the Movie in an AU.**

 **I'd also like to thank Jamesiscool2014 for once again helping me out again.**

 **Also, this story has a moral to it. So please enjoy ^^.**

* * *

 _"Just because somepony or someone is different, doesn't make them an outcast. Especially if that someone is you. Believe in who you are. You are who you are meant to be. It's your time to shine."_

 _Dusty Phoenix - "Runearian._

 **Chapter 1 - The Lost Hippogriff**

Canterlot, the home of the princess of the sun and ruler of Equestria. One which would prove to be a great home for somepony to live. The park there was also a wonderful place to relax.

Today, was going to be a special day for one young filly. Not just any filly, a special kind of purple unicorn filly with with a seven star cutie mark known, as Twilight Sparkle. She was currently out in the park with her older brother Shining Armor and her foalsitter Princess Cadance to play for a little while before heading home.

"Twily, come on kiddo, let's head home." Shing called, gaining the filly's attention before she trotted happily over to her older brother. "Aw, Shiny, can't we stay a little longer? It's wonderful out here." Twilight pouted, wanting to stay out for a little while longer. "Well it is getting a little late, plus you need your rest if you're going to succeed in school in the upcoming years." Shining stated as he started to pack up everything.

Cadance then went up to the young filly before looking at her, eye level. "Don't worry, we'll be back here again before you know it. In the meantime, let's get you home." She said, letting Twilight hop onto her back before they all headed off home.

Twilight decided to trot through town with Cadance and Shining Armor following closely behind her. "It's always great to see you again, Cadance. I'm glad we got to spend a little more time together." Shining Armor said. "You too, Shining. It's also so good to see your little sister. I love being her foalsitter." She replied with glee.

"Hey, she's supposed to be Foalsitting me, not you Shiny Whiny." Twilight joked, causing the three of them to laugh after being out for a day of fun. They had found it enjoyable….but it all went away once they encountered a fallen lamppost which caused massive amounts of damage, but luckily nopony was hurt because of this even though this meant that the lamppost had to be moved.

"Oh great. Just when I thought this day would come to a perfect end." Shining pouted. "Wait here girls, I'll fix this and we'll be back off home in no time at all." He said before trotting over to see what the cause of this was. Cadance and Twilight then sat down while they waited for Shining to finish up.

The young unicorn filly then heard a noise from down a nearby alleyway. It was a crying noise and sounded like a young colt who had lost his mother. When Cadance wasn't looking, Twilight decided to take a peek down the alleyway to find the foal. "H...Hello? Is anypony there?" She asked nervously, trying not to sound afraid. She looked down countless paths to find the source of the voice, until she turned her attention to the left path. She saw the little colt who she was expecting to hear from. After seeing him beside a couple of old boxes, Twilight then went over to him and immediately assumed he was a pegasus from the two wings on either side of his body.

The colt she saw was orange and had a red mane and tail which were all dirtied from the rain and mud, he also had two golden eyes which looked in fear at the young filly. But what Twilight saw, was nothing like she had ever expected before in her entire life. The little colt had two claws for his frontal hooves, there was a beak of a bird for his mouth and also a necklace consisting of four coral like pearls.

The pair of them gasped in fright as they backed away from each other. Twilight then looked back at the strange colt with fright before realising that he wasn't attacking, rather he was frightened of Twilight herself. "Hey...it's ok. I won't hurt you." The young filly said, holding out her hoof for helping the colt onto his hooves. The colt hesitated at first, but eventually he took the young filly's hoof as she helped him back onto all fours. The young colt wobbles a little while trying to stand up, but he managed to calm down once he looked at the young filly. "Are you feeling ok?" She asked without thinking properly. "N..Not really." The orange colt replied, rubbing his left claw.

"Twilight?! Twily where are you?!" Shining Armor Called out with worry. Twilight then decided to head back to him along with the colt. "Come on, let's get you out of here and somewhere nice." She said, guiding the colt out of the alleyway and into the open streets of Canterlot where she met up with her big brother and Cadance

"Um...Twilight, who's this?" Shining asked, cringing at the sight of the colt a little. "H...Hello, I'm...Dusty...Dusty Phoenix.'' The young colt said, revealing his name. "Did you say Phoenix? You mean like Princess Celestia's pet Philomena?" Twilight asked with amazement. "Who and what now? I have no idea what you're talking about." Dusty said, confused about what the young filly was talking about.

"Err...Twilight, I don't think it's a good idea to be anywhere near this kid." Shining warned, feeling unsure about the colt from his appearance. "What are you talking about? He's dirty, lonely and he needs some company." Twilight said, putting herself between Dusty and her brother.

"Twilight, I believe you should listen to your brother." Cadance said while feeling a little unsure about the colt herself. "But come on Cadance, he needs help." Twilight said in trying to convince her foalsitter, which seemed to work. "Well...he does look rather shaken up...oh alright." Cadence admitted.

Suddenly, Dusty felt a little woozy and passed out, causing Twilight to panic frightfully as she ran up to him. "DUSTY! Oh no, please wake up!" She begged, hoping the colt would wake up.

He hesitated for a second, then with no other choice, Shining decided to listen to her little sister and put Dusty across his back. "Please let him be ok for my sister's sake." He thought in his head.

"Alright, let's get him home. Dad'll know what to do." Shining said as galloped off towards home with the little colt on his back. Twilight was then got on top of Cadance and she followed Shining back home.

After getting back home. Shining burst through the door and called out for his parents. "Dad, Mom. we need help!" He called out, causing his parents to come into the living room to see him with some sort of furry-feathery creature on his back.

Gasping in fright at the furry thing, Night Light wanted to throw it out. "Take it away Shining. Whatever it is." He said with disgust, mistaking Dusty for some sort of dirty rug..

"Dad, please...he's in bad shape." Dusty said, laying the colt across the couch and showing the wounds that he had and what condition the colt was in. Night Light agreed to help Dusty, and started by getting some medicine for his wounds which would have took an hour to kick in and heal, but oblivious to everyone (except Twilight) Dusty started to glow a little until his wounds healed all on their own.

"Woah…" Twilight said with amazement, seeing the wounds heal so quickly off of the colt. Dusty then lifted his head slowly towards the young filly's. "How...how did you do that?" Twilight asked, amazed with the ability the young colt possessed. "I...I've always...had it…" Dusty stuttered, nervous about being around Twilight.

Everypony else then turned around and saw Dusty's wounds gone. "Huh...I knew that this medicine would help...but I didn't know it would help this much..." Night Light said, oblivious to Dusty's ability. "I know right? As I was saying before, Twilight found him in one of the alleyways in Canterlot, she seemed to help him for some reason." Shining explained, proving it with the dirty necklace the young colt wore.

"But what is he? He definitely doesn't look like any colt that I've ever seen before." Night Light asked, confused with the appearance of Dusty. "Well either way, he's really dirty, let's bring him to the bathroom to get him cleaned up." Velvet stated, picking the young colt up and taking him up to the bathroom.

Twilight gladly followed the colt, hoping to play with him afterwards. "Hmm...that's one strange colt. I wonder what my aunt would say about him?" Cadance asked curiously. "I think it's best not to mention him for now. If anyone spots him, they'd freak out. So I think it's best not to tell anyone about this for now." Shining said, not wanting to attract attention from anyone else.

* * *

In the bathroom

Twilight's mother had run a nice warm bath and set Dusty into it before she proceeded to wash him. Dusty was enjoying the wash as he felt a lot better than being in the alleyway. "I hope that this will be enough to help him." Velvet said to herself, wanting to make sure the young colt felt happy again. "Ok Twilight, let's get this little guy cleaned up." She said to her daughter who grabbed the soap and handed it to her mother.

The young filly then played around with Dusty for a moment before her mother told her to get dried off. Before she could dry herself however, Twilight looked back at the necklace that Dusty had on him and wondered what it was. "Hmm, why was Dusty wearing this? What is it?" She thought to herself. She then shrugged it off as she went out to collect a book from her family's library before she went back over to the bathroom where her mother was still cleaning the dirt off of Dusty.

Twilight's Mother, Twilight Velvet, got Dusty and she put him in the tub with her magic. "How did this...Er, Phoenix get dirty again?" She asked after noticing the mud on his coat. "I don't know mother, I found him like that. But he does need a wash up." Twilight replied, Going back to her book.

She then started looking up on what Dusty could be, flicking through each page to see what his species was. "No...he can't be a pegasus, he can't be a unicorn, and he's not a normal earth pony. Scratch that, he's not a pony at all. What could he be? He did say he name was phoenix, but what is he?" She said to herself.

But just as she reached a page which showed what he could be...Dusty's necklace began to glow. This drew Twilight's attention from her book a little at first, but when it glowed a little brighter, that's when she took full notice. "What the…?" She said to herself as she trotted over to it again. Amazed at the glowing piece of jewelry, she picks it up with her magic.

"Oh my, a glowing necklace, it's beautiful. I think I should stu-" She said, but was cut off when she heard a scream from her mother. "AAAAHHHHH! OH MY CELESTIA!" This drew attention to the rest of Twilight's Family. Night Light and Shining came to the bathroom to see what was wrong.

"Velvet, Darling what's going o-H MY GOODNESS!" Night Light said, noticing the newly transformed Dusty in a bathtub full of water. "Mom, What happened?" Shining asked before looking into the tub.

"Mother, Mother! Look, Dusty's necklace is glowing!" Twilight said to Velvet with excitement before noticing her mother's scared face. "Why were you screaming, Mother? Is there something wrong?" She asked, Confusingly. "N..N..No, Twilight. G..Go back to what you were doing." Velvet stuttered her words.

"No Mother, I want to see Dusty, is he cleaned up?" She asked, but when she got close, she saw what happened to her newfound friend.

Twilight was a little confused herself on what happened from her view above the water. But when she looked under the water, she got her answer. Dusty had become something entirely different than what he originally was before.

He had now changed his appearance to one similar to Twilight's. His beak was replaced with a pony muzzle, his front claws had turned into pony hooves with red fins on them and his two hind legs had disappeared and leaving a sort of fish like tail behind him. Oddly enough, Dusty was having a good time splashing about in the bathtub in that form.

"Woah…" Twilight said in awestruck. But without knowing, she accidently slipped into the tub with the necklace in hoof. "TWILY!" Shining screamed, only to see something glowing under the water. Twilight began to change, her front side of her body stayed the same, but her hind legs and tail fused together and formed a fish tail along with her cutie mark which began to shift up to a fin on her back.

"You ok miss?" Dusty asked in fright, using his fins to help Twilight up. Twilight had passed out in the water after hitting her horn off the bottom of the tub. Dusty's necklace was still being held in her hoof. "My Necklace. She found it." Dusty said, seeing his necklace in Twilight's hoof.

"Tw..Tw….Twilight..Twilight has…..Oh." Velvet said as she fainted onto the dry floor at the sight of her own daughter's transformation. "What's going on? This...this is just impossible." Night Light said to himself.

Shining Armor, now shocked at seeing his little sister as a fish, got her out of the tub and used his magic to bring a towel over to her and began to dry her off. The necklace glowed once again as Twilight turned back to her normal unicorn self. Night Light then tried waking her up after she passed out.

Dusty shied away as he cried in fear because of the thought of being scorned, but he was soon taken out of the tub dried off too, making the necklace glow again and turn Dusty back to his original form.

"Twilight, are you ok?" Night Light asked with panic. "Ugh, I think I bumped my head when I fell in. What happened while I was out?" She said, consciously. "Umm…" They didn't want to say anything about what happened. "I had this weird dream that I became a fishpony and I saw you guys, you were afraid of what happened to me." She said, scaredly with tears coming down her eyes.

With nothing else to think about, Dusty decided to comfort her, feeling pretty bad about leaving his necklace for her to see a frightful experience. "Um...do you feel ok Miss?" Dusty asked Twilight, causing her to remember one important detail. "Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I never introduced myself. I'm Twilight Sparkle." She said, properly introducing herself to Dusty.

Velvet got up from the floor. "Twilight! Fishpony! Dusty! Magic!" She said frantically with shock and fright. "Velvet, calm down. It's alright. Are you ok?" Night Light asked, trying to make sure his wife was ok. "I'm ok. But what happened?" She asked, trying to think.

"Ah, here's what Twilight found out." Shining said as he picked up the book from the stool and read it. "Dusty's a Hippogriff, half pony half eagle. But legend said that the Hippogriffs have left their place, Runearia, long ago, and the hippogriffs of Mount Aris...have rarely been seen since those times back then." He said, this was confusing towards Dusty as he had no clue what he was on the older colt was on about.

"But just then...wow. I dunno, what happened, but you both became Seaponies." Shining said when he looked through again. He came across a chapter which explained what Dusty became in the bathtub. "According to the book, Seaponies live in the ocean, but...nah I'll get to that part later." He said, closing the book and putting it to the side.

Twilight then looked at the Book which Shining Armor spoke about, she then saw a similar image to what she saw in the tub. "These are the same Fishponies I saw in my dream." She said, shocked at the sight of the picture in the book for some reason.

"How were you both able to become Seaponies? That thing doesn't happen around these parts." Night Light decided to ask. "My necklace has some sort of magic. Whenever I touch water with it, it turns me into that thing you see in the book. Twilight turned into one because she had the necklace in her hoof when she fell in." Dusty explained, telling everyone what had happened.

"So Dusty, where are your parents?" Velvet asked, wondering where they were and why he was in that alleyway all on his own. Dusty then had a look on his face with tears in his eyes which told her what happened to his parents. "Oh….I see." She said feeling sorry for the little hippogriff colt. "What happened to his parents?" Shining asked with a whisper in confusion. "I lost them when I was younger." Dusty explained, he then told everyone that he'd been living in the alleyway ever since, in case they ever came back.

Just then, Cadance came into the bathroom, seeing everything messy and quite wet. "Er...What did I miss?" She asked awkwardly. "A bit." Shining said, rubbing the back of his head. He then lead Cadance into the living room while he allowed his parents to sort out the mess that had been caused by Dusty.

Velvet then told Twilight to bring Dusty up to her room while Night Light and her cleaned the bathroom. "You're amazing. I've never seen a hippogriff before, so you're the first." Twilight said, bringing Dusty into her room. "We don't get a lot of Hippogriffs around Equestria, for some reason I don't know." She also mentioned.

Dusty looked around the young filly's room with amazement. She had so many books, a couple of toys, including a teddy bear in a blue pair of pants with white spots on them. "Woah, it's like your room is a giant library." Dusty said, looking at all of the books Twilight had in her room.

"It's kind of a giant library. Oh, I almost forgot. Be sure to keep it down, there's someone else sleeping here." Twilight said before trotting over to a crib. "Someone else? Who?" Dusty asked with confusion, flying over to the crib too. "You mean, what." Twilight corrected him, while showing him what was in the crib itself. Dusty was amazed at who was inside the crib.

Inside, a purple figure with green spikes lay asleep. "It's a...Baby Dragon?" Dusty spoke, wondering what a dragon was doing in her room. "I decided to call him Spike, because of the spikes on his back. He was a gift from Princess Celestia herself. She gave it to me to look after, It was hard the first few times, but eventually I got the hang of it." Twilight explained.

"Excuse me, I might be new here, but I did hear what you told me, and may I ask why is an actual fire breathing little dragon living in a house full of ponies? Won't it light something on fire? Wouldn't that be dangerous for you?" Dusty asked, concerned about Twilight's safety. "Don't worry about it, as long as I am his caretaker, I'm sure he won't hurt anypony, or anyone in your case." Twilight reassured, stroking Dusty's feathers.

Just then, Velvet came up the stairs and trotted over to the young ones. "So Dusty...we've tried looking all around for your parents, nopony know where they are. We've tried looking down the alleyways, but we weren't able to find any trace whatsoever. We also don't know where your home is so...Right it's settled. Why don't we let you stay here for a long while until we do find your parents?" Velvet suggested, making Dusty a little excited.

Twilight was also excited and decided to show a few of her things to Dusty such as a pony doll that she called Smartypants, mainly because she wore pants. "This is my most favorite toy of all. I call her, Smarty Pants, she comes with a notebook and a quill." Twilight explained, showing where the items were.

"She's...Really…..cool?" Dusty stated, trying not to lie to her. "Oh, Thanks. I know that she looks really old and worn out, but I still like her." Twilight said, taking note to her doll's worn out looks. "Wow, I..didn't think that you would take it that way. I mean yes, I like her, but she doesn't look like other dolls. She looks different, like me." Dusty lowers his head in sadness, upon saying this.

"You ok Dusty?" Twilight asked with worry. "Well...It's been a long day. I have been tired from sleeping in the alleyway all the time, mainly because there were cats down there and..." Dusty started, but Twilight cut him off with reassurance.

"Dusty...you'll be fine with us. I'm sure your parents are out there somewhere." The little filly said cheerfully. "Besides, you'll love it here in Canterlot, it's a really wonderful place to live." Twilight finished.

The young hippogriff then smiled, as he lays down, looking up at the ceiling. "Hmm, where are my parents?" He thought before closing his eyes. In doing so, Dusty began to dream.

* * *

 _He was sitting in a field, looking at a lot of hippogriffs flying about and having a wonderful time playing with others._

 _Many Hippogriffs were around a huge island which oddly enough, looked as if they were in the clouds. Dusty then turned around to see two different species, one was grey hippogriff with yellow eyes like Dusty's and the other was a seapony who looked oddly enough like a lionfish._

 _There were also seaponies who were roaming around the lakes of the entire island. Dusty was then picked up by the seapony and cradled in her arms and to the young hippogriff, it felt warm and wonderful._

 _The hippogriff then gathered all his followers, Hippogriffs and Seaponies alike and revealed Dusty, like he was some newborn foal….but it couldn't be possible...could it?_

 _Suddenly, everything turned dark. It looked like the sun had left the sky, or was blocked by gigantic grey clouds._

 _When that happened, Dusty became frightened, looking around to see every Seapony and Hippogriff running in fear as a mighty armada of beasts came out of nowhere and attempted to destroy the island. To make matters worse, there was even a giant albino beast looking evilly at the islanders._

 _"Listen all!" One of the beasts spoke. "This island, and it's kingdom, all belong now to The Storm King!" Hearing that had scared Dusty and even caused him to cry despite not knowing what that beast was talking about._

 _Dusty sees that the seaponies, and his parents had left him alone on the island, and had seen The Storm King as he heard, take over the entire island. There was a dark aura which was blasted in Dusty's direction which engulfed him and some of the islanders in the process._

* * *

This caused Dusty to wake up in fright. He looked all around and saw his surroundings. He then knew that he had fallen asleep in Twilight's room.

"Hey Dusty, I saw that you were sleeping, and I didn't bother waking you up. It felt like you needed that rest. So I left you to sleep silently. But I heard you mumbling in your sleep. You were saying "No, come back!" and "leave them alone!" I was worried Dusty. Can you please tell me what you were dreaming about?" Twilight asked. Dusty however...couldn't. He was confused about his dream and what it meant, but he was curious himself about it. "I dunno. I've been having it ever since I was in Canterlot." Dusty explained, scratching his head in the process.

"Well, I think you need more rest. Stop thinking about that dream, and think of something else. Here, I made this for you earlier on, with a little help from Cadance and Shiny." Twilight hoofed him a doll that looked like Smartypants, except it looks more like a Hippogriff.

"Thank you Twilight." Dusty said, looking at the doll. It was silver with a grey mane and tail, along with it's hooves, claws and beak and it's eyes were amber. "I'll call him…..Buckbeak." Dusty said with amazement of the doll. "Hey, that's a great name. I don't know how you came up with it, but it definitely seems suitable for the doll." Twilight said, also amazed at the looks of the doll.

"Well, Have a great nap Dusty. Also...I'm glad you're alright after being in that alleyway. Speaking of which, why were you in that alleyway in the first place?" Twilight asked. Dusty didn't want to answer and just went on to sleep.

* * *

The Next Day

Twilight got her things ready for school and was ready for another day in her mentor's school for gifted unicorns. "Where are you going Twilight?" Dusty asked in confusion. "I'm heading out to school, my mentor's school. I've been wanting to attend ever since I first started learning about Magic." Twilight explained. "Is it possible that i can come too?" Dusty asked feeling the excitement if he could go. "Sorry Dusty...but you can't come. A lot of the fillies and colts would freak out if they saw you." Twilight said sadly as her ears flattened.

"Oh...that's ok. Well, could I at least walk to you? I wanna see what the school looks like." The young hippogriff asked. "No, I just don't want anyone to know about you. What if you got hurt? What if you were taken and used for experiments? What if…?" Twilight shook her head and snapped out of it. "The answer is no, Dusty. I'm sorry." She said, but then came up with a great idea.

"Well...maybe we could give you a disguise. That could give you more of a chance to look around." Twilight suggested, pulling out a pair of forehoof boots and a scarf to cover his beak, making him look like a pony. "Nice idea." Dusty said with agreement.

Soon, Twilight and Dusty were heading off to school, talking to each about Dusty's origins and how he came to Canterlot with the disguise working.

"So...how did you get into this school?" Dusty asked, curious to know the answer. "Well, since I was so into how magic worked, my parents decided to let me attend this school...but at a price. I had to perform a special kind of magic for my entry, but it didn't work the first time." Twilight explained as her ears flattened.

"But then...there was this loud boom and I ended up using a lot of magic in the process. When that happened, I caused a lot of trouble...but that's when my private mentor allowed me to attend, knowing I would need a lot of help with controlling it." She finished happily. "Not only did I end up attending, I also got my Cutie Mark and it was the first day I met Spike." She mentioned, showing her seven stars cutie mark.

"Er...what's a cutie mark?" Dusty asked, confused at the symbol on Twilight's hind leg. "A cutie mark shows anypony what their calling in their life is. See mine, it has stars and sparkles on them, it shows that I know alot about magic." Twilight explained before they arrived at the school itself. "Well, here it is. I've got to go now, I'll see you at home." Twilight said, hoping that Dusty would know the way. "Um..Ok. Bye?" Dusty said while Twilight sped off to school.

Dusty was about to head home...but a little smirk on his beak would tell anyone that he had other plans. Without warning, Dusty then saw an open window and entered it without anyone noticing. "Right, let's see what's in this school." He said to himself.

* * *

Inside the school

Dusty popped out of his disguise before he started wandering through the school quietly, trying not to alert anypony from their classes. "Wow...I don't know what Twilight was talking about. This school looks absolutely amazing." He said to himself. He then hears someone coming, and hops onto a blank pedestal and poses as a statue.

"Strange? Since when did we get a statue looking like a hippogriff?" One of the foals asked as they went by. Dusty then sighed in relief before he hopped off the pedestal, moving on down the corridor. "Phew, that was close." He said to himself.

Further down the school, Dusty found many interesting artifacts that ponies used in the history section. It mainly had the history on The Mare in the Moon, The Elements of Harmony and Legends of Discord. "Hmm...I wonder what these are talking about?" He thought to himself.

He then heard hoofsteps coming his way and immediately hid behind a statue. "Curious, I thought I heard a noise coming from this hallway...but I suppose it's nothing." A majestic voice spoke out. Dusty's little heart was beating fast.

"Nah, it's probably just a student pulling a prank. Anyways, you understand our bet don't you? If I win this year, your school will be mine to control." Another voice spoke, sounding like a greedy and villainous pony in Dusty's opinion. "I do...but you have to learn, actions have consequences. If you make a wrong turn, you'll..." The first voice spoke.

"Yeah yeah, morals etc. I get it. But nothing is gonna happen to me, because I'm gonna be a great Principal. I may even get my own place on the Equestria Education Association alongside Chancellor Neighsay." The second voice then said out of nowhere, snickering with excitement as he spoke.

The first voice then sighed with annoyance before speaking. "They wouldn't allow even a greedy unicorn to be on their seats Zealous, you should have known that by now." She said, warning the voice called Zealous. When the hoofsteps were gone, Dusty let out a sigh in relief before walking off to find Twilight's classroom. Luckily, he noticed where Twilight was, from one of the windows on the door.

But suddenly, Dusty was surrounded by a magical aura and lifted into the air where he was brought over to a very tall looking pony who had a long unicorn horn, a gold crown, golden eyes and a flowing mane and tail. "And may I ask, who might you be, young one?" She asked, revealing herself as none other than Princess Celestia herself. "Um...I'm..." Dusty stuttered nervously. "Dusty." He finished, shutting his eyes nervously.

"Hmm, what a wonderful name for a hippogriff. Especially one who I presume would end up along on the streets of Canterlot." She said, taking notice to his appearance.. "How do you know about my kind? And how did you know where I ended up?" He asked with disbelief.

The princess chuckled before she spoke. "I happened to notice you walking with Twilight on the way to my school today." Celestia explained, admiring the young Hippogriff. "Yeah, i'm a new friend of hers. We've...sort of been living with each other since yesterday." Dusty explained, feeling a bit nervous about the outcome.

"Would you like to walk around the school with me? It can be like a tour, with only just you and me." Celestia offered kindly. Thinking for a moment, Dusty then nodded his head with agreement and off they went. "Over here, we have some Statues from Equestria's History. Here's a statue of an evil draconequus that was banished to stone for causing all of Equestria to total chaos." Celestia explained, showing a rather strange form of creature with multiple different body parts.

Dusty looked confused on Discord's appearance, mainly because he couldn't tell what he was supposed to be. "What was Discord like?" He asked, wanting to know a little more about Discord. "Well, he's...never been one with harmony. Rather, he does his own thing, which nopony finds impressive." Celestia said with embarrassment.

"There were many creatures and very evil ponies that we have encountered in the past. Like, changelings, an evil unicorn umbrum known as King Sombra, a mighty centaur Lord Tirek, The Pony of Shadows, and the most recent, Scorpan the Gargoyle." Celestia explained, showing a few pictures from a book on what they looked like.

"Lord Tirek? What was he like?" Dusty asked, quite scared of the centaur, pony and unicorn in the book. "He was...a really horrible Centaur. The Pony of Shadows was terrifying to everypony before he was dealt with, and King Sombra was the same as he tried ruling The Crystal Empire." Celestia explained. "Crystal Empire? Wait, what is it? Where is it? Is it made out of real crystals?" Dusty decided to ask all at once without slowing down.

"Technically yes, The Crystal Empire was a beautiful kingdom inhibited by Crystal Ponies. Unfortunately it disappeared about 1000 years ago by the dark magic of King Sombra." Celestia explained, telling Dusty as much as she could.

The princess then brought Dusty into the throne room where she would usually sit when her loyal subjects came to meet her. Looking around, Dusty saw a lot of stained glass windows which contained something important. One of them caught Dusty's attention.

"What's that one?" Dusty asked, pointing to a stained glass window of Celestia herself blasting some mare into the moon with the help of seven jewels. "That, I cannot tell." Celestia said, trying to hide a tear. Immediately the young hippogriff could tell that Celestia didn't want to talk about that story, so he left it for another time.

Dusty then thought about another question. "How many private Students do you have?" He asked, thinking about Twilight being a private student to Celestia. "I've had many private students in the past. The most recent, your friend Twilight Sparkle. But there was one...well two before Twilight really...who I became close to." Celestia explained. "One was a young filly called Sunset Shimmer, and the other one...was her older sister, Coral Ocean." She continued, mentioning two fillies.

Dusty was curious about Coral and decided to ask more. "Were you close?" He asked, not wanting to ask more. "Not that much, but her Sunny's was the best student before Twilight came. And Coral, she didn't get what she wanted and...it's best to leave it at that. All I can say for now is...Sunny was devastated with what happened next and she decided to stop being my private student and do something more fun for ponies." Celestia lowered her head, but continued on with the one-student tour.

"And this, This is a picture of the palace, where the throne room is." Celestia said, showing Dusty the picture. "Who's that dark blue mare sitting next to you?" Dusty asked, but Celestia didn't answer him. "How about we continue on?" Celestia asked, Ignoring Dusty's Question.

"Allons-Y, it means let's go, in Prench. Somepony told me that a long time ago." She said with a giggle. "But, None of this answered my que-" Dusty started, but cut off by a suddenly happy Celestia. "Ooh, are you hungry? Let's go get some lunch." She tried to ignore him, not wanting to remember what happened between her and her sister.

"You were close to her...weren't you?" Dusty asked gently, knowing the reason the question was being ignored. "I'm Sorry, I cannot tell." Celestia said, with a sad tone. "It's alright, I understand." Dusty replied, putting his claw on Celestia's hoof with understandment on losing someone close to them. "Come with me." She said, gesturing her hoof as Dusty followed her to a small room, with nopony, or no one else inside.

Once they were in the room, Dusty Broke the silence. "I know you're going to tell me to stop asking, but I really want to know who that pony was in the picture." Dusty said, asking with a polite and honest tone. "That pony, she was my sister. A mare everypony in equestria knew, before she became resentful when she saw that the ponies were embracing fun with the sunlight, and falling asleep during the night. What she wanted, was the night to be fun, so that ponies around can enjoy her night. But that turned her into something else. The darkness surrounded her and transformed her into a wicked ruler who wants to bathe Equestria in eternal night. She was now known throughout Equestria as Nightmare Moon, but I knew her as Luna, My only sister. When i couldn't reason with her, I had no choice but to banish her into the moon for eternity. And that's where she still remains, even to this day." Celestia explained, telling the whole story of the past.

Dusty had watched this and his face was stuck in a shocked expression, upon hearing the story. He shook his head and asked another question. "What if she did come back? Would there be a way to save Luna and defeat the darkness within?" Dusty asked, hoping that there was a way.

"Maybe, but i'm not so sure that she'll return." Celestia said. "What if there were signs which pointed to her return? You might be able to know when she'll return. And if she does...would you confront her again?" Dusty asked, hoping that Celestia could reason with her fallen sister again.

Celestia wanted to answer, but before she could, another pony entered the small room. "Celestia? Oh there you are. Zealous Cinch is here once again, should I..." The pony said, causing Celestia to panic and hide the picture quickly. The pony then discovered Dusty and looked at him with suspicions. "Erm, my princess...is that...a hippogriff?" He asked with a little panic. "No, it's a pony in a hippogriff costume, honest." She lied, regretting lying to the unicorn. "Could you excuse me for a moment, Spell Nexus? Oh, could you also tell Zealous to wait for a couple more minutes? Thanks." She said, without getting an answer.

"This is all the info I can give for now, I have an important meeting I have to get to. Once you're in the gardens, hide in the bushes." Celestia said, using her magic to hide Dusty. "But Princess, What do I do..." But before he could finish, Dusty was then cut off by Celestia teleporting him to the gardens where he fell into the pond.

Spell Nexus didn't looked fooled by Dusty's disguise from the look on his face. "I don't believe you. I can tell a real hippogriff when I see one." He stated, making Celestia a little nervous. "Ok...he is a hippogriff. One who lost his family and is living with my private student's family. You cannot tell anypony about this...please." Celestia explained, begging to keep Dusty a secret for now.

"Oh...very well. But are you quite certain that this hippogriff should be here? You know the rules of the EEA don't you?" Spell Nexus asked Celestia. "Yes, I'm well aware of the rules Nexus. Why do you ask?" Celestia said, glancing over to the unicorn. "Simply because, if the members found out that a Hippogriff was in Equestria..." He started, only to be cut off the princess' reassurance. "They won't find out. Besides, they've always been...too strict with their rules." She said, expressing her thoughts on the EEA.

The conversation was then interrupted by another pony. "Sorry to interrupt your royal highness, but I've been waiting a little to long for you to meet with me once again." The pony said, revealing himself to be Zealous Cinch. "What's this I hear about Hippogriffs?" the Principal asked with suspicion.

"I'm just saying to the headmaster of my school, about Hippogriffs from….a book that I read, a long time ago. Hehehe." Celestia laughed nervously. Hoping that Zealous would buy the story without trouble. "Hm, fair enough. Who am I to judge? Wait...I always judge. Anyways, onto business." He said with an evil smirk.

* * *

Later on in the gardens

Twilight had finished up her last class and decided to go to the canterlot gardens to study more on a few new spells she learned about today. "Boy...what a day. Those spells were really hard to conjure. Well hopefully it won't be as hard next time." The little unicorn said to herself.

Suddenly, the pond started bubbling. "Ugh, What a rush. Next time I should wear my disguise." Dusty said as he spat out water from his muzzle. When he fell into the pond, his necklace immediately transformed him into his seapony form to prevent him from getting his feathers wet.

Twilight then took notice of this and immediately went over to the pond to see Dusty waving his fins about and trying to dry off. He then noticed Twilight in front of him and gasped with horror. "Dusty, I told you to use a disguise if you were going to come back, what happened to it?" Twilight whispered with shock.

"I forgot it...also, Celestia found me out. And she transported me here so I can hide from some other principal. I couldn't tell what his name is, but I think it rhymes with Jealous Finch? Or something like that." Dusty replied, leaning on the grass.

Twilight then took a moment to thing, but suddenly realised who he was talking about. "You saw Zealous Cinch?!" She squeaked in horror. "Er...only briefly. Why?" Dusty asked, nervous about what Twilight was going to say.

"Zealous Cinch is a principal who claims that his school is the best but it's actually a horrible school where he threatens students with their desires along with his wife. He tried getting me into his school...but my parents refused, it's here that I wanted to go." Twilight explained, horrified at the thought of Dusty being exposed. "Yeah, I understand why, but Why is this Zealous Cinch, here? And what is he doing to Celestia's School?" Dusty asked.

Twilight didn't get the chance to speak as she heard two voices. "Hey look, it's one of those useless students." One voice spoke, frightening Twilight in the process. "Quick, back into the pond!" She squeaked. Dusty then hopped back into the pond and tried to hide.

"Well well well...look who it is. Midnight Glitter."The voice said, coming closer to Twilight. The voice's owner then revealed itself to be a light pink filly older than twilight with a blue and white mane and tail, there was also an albino colt with a gold mane and tail. "It's Twilight Sparkle" Twilight corrected the filly. "Whatever, who cares?" The colt said.

The Pink filly then came closer to Twilight with an smirk on her face. "Still coming to this lame school I see?" The filly said, insulting Celestia's School. "You could have come to Patty's Father's school, but you had to choose a lame school like this." The colt said, insulting the school further.

The filly, revealed to be Zealous' daughter, Patty Cake. "I didn't want to go there. It's horrible," The colt, named Sheen Gold, said to Twilight. "St..Stop insulting Celestia's School. It's the greatest school I've been to." Twilight said, trying to defend the school. "How can you call it the greatest? When it is merely just an ordinary school?" Patty said with disgust.

"You think Celestia's School is ordinary? No it's not. It's great and outstanding. It teaches young unicorns about Magic, instead of rules. Sure there are some rules that apply to this school, but not everything has to have rules." Twilight said, mentioning the good parts about the school itself. "You know...my daddy will claim this school someday." Patty said.

"Is that so? Well, he...he'd better think twice about that." Twilight said, shuddering at the thought of her mentor's school closing down. "Someday, i'll make my own school, and i'll probably won't invite you to come." Twilight said to the two bullies. This made the two of them laugh out loud mockingly. "You'll never get anywhere like that Midnight, you're gonna be all alone without friends and nothing to make you successful either." Patty mocked.

Just as Twilight was on the verge of crying, a blast of water suddenly hit Patty's face and soaking a bit of her hair. "Hey? Who did that?" She asked, looking all around for the foal culprit, but she couldn't find anyone around.

A few bubbles the popped, causing Patty to look over at the pond. "Who's there?" She asked with annoyance. She and Sheen both gazed into the water, hoping it was a frog, but they both froze upon what she saw next. "Pick on someone your own size!" Dusty spoke through the water in his seapony form. They both stammered in response to the seapony before he jumped up at them.

At this, the two bullies started to run in fear, screaming all the way. "Mom help! A monster in the pool!" Sheen Gold screamed. "Daddy!" Patty Cake screamed. When they were both gone, Dusty then hopped out of the pond and turned back into his Hippogriff state before he and Twilight then laughed at this. "Great timing Dusty, I didn't even see you there." Twilight said, smiling once again.

"It's the least I could do for you, especially if those fillies were picking on you." Dusty said cheerfully. The moment was cut short however when they heard something unexpected. "Daddy, It was over here! This is where i saw the beast!" Patty said, scared of her life. "Mommy! The Monster is in that pond!" Sheen said, showing his mother

Looking at each other in panic, Twilight tells Dusty to hide. "Somepony is coming, Hide. Remember, you're not supposed to be seen in the school." She said, allowing Dusty to hid in the bushes and peeping out of it. "Hello young filly, Sheen here says that there was a monster in the water." Sheen's mother greeted. "I'm sorry, I do not know what he's talking about. There is no such thing as a sea monster." Twilight lied innocently. Not wanting to give Dusty away.

"It's in the pond, come on, I'll show you!" Patty said frantically, pushing past Twilight and showing her father the pond. "See, it's right down...there?" Patty said with disbelief, seeing that the so called monster was nowhere to be seen in the pond. "Is this some kind of joke?" Zealous asked with anger, glaring at his daughter in the process.

"N...No. There was actually a monster glaring at us within the pond right there." Patty said, Trying to get her father's attention. "Is this true Sheen, did you see the monster too?" Sheen's mother asked, causing Sheen to nod his head before looking into the pool once again. When he did however, the 'Monster' he saw was nowhere to be seen, not a trace of him in the deepest part of the pool itself. This left the two foals stammering in disbelief. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but you should learn not to lie." Sheen's mother said to the two foals.

"I wasn't lying Mom, I saw it, Tell her, Patty!" Sheen said to Patty, who replied with a nod. "Are you sure? Because I do not see anyone in there now." Sheen's Mother said. All the while, Dusty looked through the bushes, getting a peek at what was going on. "They mustn't know what I am. I need to hide my form, but how?" Dusty thought. He then looked at his saddlebags before taking out something he nearly forgot back in the school. "This should help." He thought. The disguise happened to be a small colt, with slits for his wings.

Dusty then appeared beside Twilight, using his little wings to fly beside her. He wore the little scarf and the pair of boots which fit his claws perfectly on him, he was lucky nopony could tell he was a Hippogriff, otherwise it would have been scary for everyone. "Hello young colt, you must be new here. What's your name?" Zealous asked . "I'm D...Drywater Creek." Dusty lied in panic, hoping that Zealous would buy his disguise and his fake name. Luckily, he said it was a great name and he looked at him in a weird way. "Excuse me, Drywater you said right? Have you seen a sea-monster around in the pool? Patty here said that she and her friend Sheen saw it. Did you too?" Zealous asked. "No sir, I just came here." Dusty lied, once again and hoped that he'd get away.

They managed to sneak past Zealous before he could notice them. He was about to start following his daughter. However, Zealous noticed something beside a nearby bush. It appeared to be an orange feather. He picked it up with his magic before observing it with his own eyes. "Hmm...something tells me that there's something else besides that little foal." He said to himself, knowing that the feather was not from a phoenix. "We'd better get home, I think mom's expecting us." Twilight said nervously, before grabbing Dusty and speeding off.

* * *

Back home

Twilight and Dusty had walked in the door happily talking to each other, but then they noticed something quite off. "Er...Dusty? Did you you leave the door open?" Twilight asked, While Dusty removed his disguise.

"No, I made sure I closed it. Why?" Dusty said as he arched an eyebrow in confusion. "Well… I feel like someone's broken in here." Twilight said, looking all around the house. She then looked straight at a face, and not a very happy face.

This caused the two young ones to flinch in fright. "WHERE IS THE HIPPOGRIFF?! WHERE?!" a familiar voice said. "Zealous." Dusty and Twilight both gasped in unison. "Come on, where is it?!" Zealous said with impatience. "We do not know what you're talking about Mr. Cinch. We do not have a hippogriff here. None of them live in Canterlot. Don't they live in that ancient land, Runearia?" Night Light spoke to the harsh principal

"Don't play dumb with me, Sparkle. I know you have the Hippogriff hiding here, and I need to find him! And Runearia is just a myth, it has never existed at all. Runearia is a place in old ponytales that parents tell their little ones."

"Hang on...why are you looking for a hippogriff?" Night Light asked with confusion. "Because, I found THIS, when Twilight was at the pond in the school gardens." Zealous said, holding out a single feather. "That doesn't prove anything, it's a phoenix feather that floated down from the sky as it flew." Twilight said with a lie. "WRONG! It's not a phoenix feather, I analyzed it and it happened to be a feather of a Hippogriff" Zealous said triumphantly.

"Look, I don't need you dictating on what we have. So if you don't mind, I'd like you to leave right now." Night Light said firmly. Zealous closed the front door and blocked it. "I'm not going anywhere, until I have that hippogriff! But for now...I'll let you breath...today." He said, angrily. But eventually, he left, calming down Dusty and Twilight.

Dusty came out of his hiding spot, and giving out a sigh of relief upon seeing Zealous depart from the house. "That was a close one. But you know he'll come back again." Twilight said with worry, fearing what could happen the next time.

"Yeah...we've gotta play it easy from now on." Dusty said with agreement. Before long, Velvet walked in the door along with Princess Celestia much to Dusty's surprise. "Oh my...what brings you here my princess?" Night Light asked with shock. "I came to see Dusty. Just to see how he's doing." She said, looking over at the young hippogriff.

Twilight got frightened at this and tried to think of an excuse but was cut off. "You don't need to worry Twilight, I know about Dusty. And i'm not gonna hurt him." Celestia told her, calming the little filly down in the process.

"How long…have you known exactly?" Night Light asked, and it wasn't long before he got his answer. "In the early morning while I raised the sun, I met him when I was on my trot towards the throne room to raise the sun in the afternoon, when I noticed him posing as a statue." She explained. Twilight was told that Dusty asked quite a few questions on the history of equestria and the crystal empire.

Twilight was a little surprised that Dusty hardly knew any history about Equestria itself. "Wow, You really are a curious fellow, aren't you." Velvet said, petting his head. "Well...I was mostly living in an alleyway in Canterlot, so I didn't really take notice to the outside world." Dusty said.

"Now that's no way for a young fledgeling like yourself to live." The princess said, also noticing a strange symbol on the back of Dusty's hand. "Hmm, have I seen that symbol before?" She thought before she got distracted by someone asking her a question.

"What do you know about the Hippogriffs, Princess?" Twilight asked, seeing as how Dusty was here. "All I know, there are Hippogriffs still out there, but for now...I think it's best to leave it till later." Celestia said, knowing that Dusty's home was somewhere out there, but she decided to do more research on it later. "Also, was Zealous around here before I came here?" She wanted to ask, thinking about if he found out or not.

"No. well, he was near the pond where I fell in, and he didn't notice that I became a seapony creature and..." Dusty started, but gasped and covered his beak when he revealed something too important to him.

"Does that happen often?" Celestia asked, curious about how Dusty was able to transform. "Well...as long as I have this." He said, showing his necklace to the princess herself. "The jewel is made from something magical. This means everytime I touch water with it, or whenever I'm in a situation, it turns me into a seapony. Anyone can become one too, as long as they're near me when I'm in the water." Dusty explained, telling how his necklace worked.

"Have you been able to transform into anything else? Say like...a Griffon, a Changeling or a Breezie?" Celestia asked, curious about the necklace even more. "No, I'm not sure what else it does. I think I can only become a Seapony, for now." Dusty said, showing an example of how it worked. "But Princess, you cannot tell Zealous or anypony else about this. If they found this out then..." Twilight said, only to be cut off by her mentor.

"Don't worry Twilight, Dusty's secret is safe with me. Trust me, I can keep a secret." Celestia said happily. Twilight gave a small smile to the princess as she agreed. "Well...it's been nice chatting with you all, but I'd better get back to the castle. The sun isn't going to lower itself." She said, before bidding everyone a fond farewell.

"So...what do we do about Zealous? If he finds out about Dusty...who knows what could happen." Twilight asked. "That, we do not know, but if he does find out, he might…." Velvet gulped when she thought about it. "Right now we can't worry about it. Besides, that horrible principal has to go with his, 'Perfect school' and 'Better Students'. I swear, his wife is worse than him." Night Light stated, giving his opinion on Zealous.

There was then an awkward silence within the room, but it was soon broken when Shining came in through the door. "Er...I saw Principal Cinch storm out the door. Anypony mind telling me what that was all about?" He asked with confusion.

Later on, In the bathtub

Dusty and Twilight were both playing in the water. Dusty was in his seapony form and Twilight...she decided not to change into her seapony form after last time. "Hahaha, you're tickling me Dusty." Twilight laughed as Dusty used his fins to tickle the young filly.

"Well, "I don't know why, but it looks like Dusty is having a lot of fun with his necklace." Shining Armor said, amazed at the Dusty's necklace. "Why do I get the feeling that something special will happen tomorrow?" He said to himself, yet he was replied to someone behind him. "I don't know, but the feeling about tomorrow is different for me. I feel like something really bad is going to happen." Cadance said, right beside the white stallion.

"What makes you say that, Cadance?" Shining asked. "Well, I heard that Zealous will come back and try to find Dusty. Celestia knows what would happen to Dusty when Zealous gets him. He'd be taken to the EEA council and then become abused by their magic and Chancellor Neighsay's magic is the worst of it all." She said in fear for Dusty's wellbeing.

"Don't worry Cadance, as long as Dusty remains with us, and we ignore anyone who might be working for the EEA, we're fine." Shining reassured with confidence. Cadance wasn't sure about Shining's advice, but he if had a plan to protect Dusty, then she'd hear him out.

* * *

A Few Weeks later

Celestia had offered to bring Dusty into her school to show some of the students. Excited towards this, Dusty agreed to this along with Twilight who also got to bring Spike along as well to show what he was capable of as a baby.

Zealous was still on the lookout for Dusty, but he was looking in the wrong places at the wrong time, which proved to be advantageous to the two young ones when they walked to school. Inside the school, Dusty was shown to Twilight's classroom before he went inside. "Right, hello fillies and colts. Today...by golly do I have a special treat for you all today." The teacher said, showing Twilight and Dusty.

"Hello Everypony, I'd like to introduce one of my new friends. This one is Spike...which I'm sure some of you remember from a long while back when...nevermind. Anyways, then this little guy is Dusty Phoenix, he's a Hippogriff." She said, causing Everypony in class to stare at them in shock. "Um…..Hello?" Dusty spoke nervously as he came into full view.

When the foals saw what Dusty truly was, they weren't frightened at all. Rather, they were really amazed to see the young Hippogriff for what he was."Oh my Celestia, a real hippogriff." "I want it" "It's so cute" some of the fillies and colts said.

It took a few minutes for one of the students to finally notice Dusty, and when she did, she was amazed. "Oh my goodness, I can't believe it. Twilight...how'd you find a hippogriff?" Moondancer asked in absolute awe. She then went up to the front of the class along with her other pals Lemon Hearts, Lyra, Twinkleshine and Minuette to look at Dusty up close.

"Wow...his feathers are so soft." Minuette said as she stroked Dusty's feathers. "I wanna take some home, make a pillow." Lemon Hearts said, attempting to steal a few feathers. Someone slapped her hoof.

"Don't do that Lemon, you do not want to take a Hippogriff's feathers...not if you know what's good for you." Lyra stated, having read it from a book. This upset Lemon a little, but she realised that doing that would upset a hippogriff as they were usually proud creatures.

"Alright, that's enough young ones, back to your seats." The teacher said, causing the students to return to their seats. "Now, since Dusty's new here, I want each of you to be on your best behaviour. Dusty, why don't you go sit over there, by Twilight?" She said, pointing her hoof over to the empty seat next to Twilight.

Dusty went over to the empty seat, and sat next to Twilight. "Ok Class. Today, we're continuing our lessons on the History of Equestria. Does anypony want to tell where we last left off?" The Teacher asked, hoping anyone would have a decent answer. Twilight raised her roof high, and the teacher spotted it instantly, though there was never any doubt. "Yes, Miss Sparkle?" the teacher asked. "We left off the part on a place called Runearia." She explained, causing Dusty to look towards her.

"Yes, Thank you, Miss Sparkle. Runearia used to be a wonderful place, although it was never actually seen by anypony. There were many rumors spread around, that it was spotted somewhere in the clouds one day. And some say that years later, it was left abandoned, with nopony there to watch over it." The teacher explained, showing a picture of what looked like a floating island.

Then Dusty remembered something from his dreams. He was left all alone on an island, and the strange beast tried to take it over, but since there was nothing valuable, and no one else left, he decided to leave the island, and left it abandoned, presumably forever. "What?..." He muttered under his breath.

Upon hearing this, Dusty got his claw scratched by a thin piece of paper. "Argh, Ow...that hurts." He yelped in pain, noticing the cut being small but quite painful. "Oh no, Dusty. Are you ok?" Twilight asked, worried about Dusty's claw. The teacher went up to the young hippogriff, who was still in pain. "It's ok Dusty, it's just a cut. I'll give you a small bandage to make you feel better." The teacher pulled out a small bandage from her desk drawer, and went up to Dusty to put it on.

Suddenly, Dusty's claw then healed as it glowed brightly and made the cut disappear. This amazed everypony in class. "How...how did you do that?" Moondancer said with her glasses on the edge of her muzzle. "It's a family secret." Dusty replied as his wounds healed completely. "I

thought only Phoenixes could heal themselves. Why can he heal himself?" Minuette asked with confusion.

"Girls, can I talk with you. In private?" Twilight said to her friends. "What for?" Twinkleshine asked as Twilight dragged them to the outside classroom and into a nearby closet. "Ok girls, Dusty has magic. He has this powerful necklace that can turn him into this sea creature whenever he touches water." She explained

"Wow, that is cool. What else can he do?" Lemon asked with curiosity. "Well I don't know...other than the healing ability and the Sea creature transformation.." Twilight said sheepishly. "Well, we have to find out what that necklace does. So we can know what it can really do." Moondancer said, sounding a bit greedy with the thought. "Woah, woah, woah. You're not suggesting we steal the necklace are you Moondancer?!" Lyra asked with shock. "No, we just need to ask a few questions about his necklace." She replied

Twilight was unsure about this and stated that it might be best not to talk about the necklace just in case. "Well...I'd have to agree with Twilight. Reason being, she's known that hippogriff since….When did you meet him again?" Twinkleshine said with agreement before asking Twilight the question. "A couple of weeks ago. He was left alone in an alleyway, unloved until I met him." Twilight said, letting her ears droop.

"Oh that's terrible. Well, we still agree with you Twilight, and we're going to help that poor thing get back home." Minuette stated along with the other fillies who nodded in agreement. "Wait...how did you know what I planned with Dusty?" Twilight asked with shock. "Uh...Lucky Guess? That plus, you muttered it in your breath last week." The blue unicorn replied sheepishly. "Still, We need to help him. If there's a chance his family is out there...we've gotta have a decent clue." Lyra said, desperate to help her new friend.

"You're not doing anything, fillies." a voice spoke out from the outside. When they turned their heads, they saw Zealous outside the door, he overheard the conversation and smiled wickedly. The girls gasped in horror when they saw this. "Thank you for leading him to me. I wouldn't have found him without you." Zealous said, scaring the fillies in the process. "DON'T YOU LAY A HOOF ON HIM!" Twilight screamed in horror. "I'd be quiet, if I were you. You wouldn't want anypony to know that your Hippogriff friend doesn't belong here. Besides, when the school is knocked down, you'll be knocked down along with it." Zealous stated, confusing the girls until he threw Spike into the closet and closed the door, tightly locking it before he put a magic seal on it.

He then laughed evilly before speaking to himself. "Chancellor Neighsay would be very pleased when he hears about this." Looking towards the classroom, Zealous forged a brilliant plan. "I will make every student and teacher in class fall asleep, and once i find the hippogriff, i'll catch him." Speaking to himself, he then put his plan into effect. "Sleepicus, Maximus." He incantated, emitting the spell under the door.

* * *

Back in the classroom

"Ok, Who wants to..Who turned on the fog machine?" the teacher said. The teacher then saw everypony in class, and Dusty, fall asleep. "Wake up every...pony... you know what, I'm sleepy too. Let's all have a break." She said while yawning, she then passed out on her desk.

Dusty however, woken up after he fell asleep, having the same dream he had when he was at Twilight's home. As he woke up, he started blinking rapidly before looking at his surroundings. "Phew. That stupid dream again." He muttered. Hoofsteps were being heard, and were getting closer to him.

"Hello? Who's there?" Dusty said, looking up to see the teacher asleep on her desk. "If anyone is pulling a prank on me, they'd better no..." Dusty started, only to be cut off by another voice. "Silence, young one. So it's true after all. Hippogriffs are real, and one's sitting in this classroom. Enough to get me a big reward." Zealous said aloud, somehow he had managed to use a spell which put the entire class to sleep.

Dusty tried running but was stopped by Zealous, using his magic to trap him in a large brown sack, and closed it up. "Well...that was fairly easy. Now to get to the rendezvous point for the EEA." He said to himself before making sure everyone in class was asleep. "Let me go!" Dusty said out loud, but Zealous ignored him, looking out into the hallway for any signs of movement.

* * *

In the closet

"What do we do now girls?" Minuette asked. "Twala!" Spike tried speaking. "I don't know." The purple filly responded. "We need to get out of here. How did this door get locked? There was no key inserted. So how." Twinkle asked with fear. "Zealous has a plan for Everything, Twink. He probably used magic to block the door with something." Lemon said.

Suddenly a voice was heard from the outside. "Hehehehehe, now this school will shut down permanently, and I will have enough space to build my own version of your school...right on top of you. And the best part, nopony will even notice that you've gone missing. Nopony will even miss you, or your friends." Zealous said evilly. "What have you done to them?" Dusty yelled as he wriggled around in the bag.

"Oh, they seem to be sealed up, in a closet. Forever. And they will be inside there, once the school is demolished...or better yet, I'll have them sent to juvenile hall for something horrible. And the funny thing is, in my new school, I make the rules. No playing, no laughter, no fun, no other creatures from other lands, and especially, NO FRIENDSHIP IS ALLOWED!" Zealous revealed, speaking of his true motivations. "YOU MONSTER! YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!" Dusty yelled. "Oh foolish beast….I just did." Zealous said before looking into the sack at Dusty.

"Hoohoohoo, you're really a rare Hippogriff. So imagine how I could be rewarded by the EEA when I bring you in." Zealous said evilly with greed on his mind. Dusty all the while, struggled to escape the sack

"Let me go, Please. I'm not trying to hurt anypony!" Dusty said from inside the sack. "Be quiet in there, or else I'll hit you!" Zealous yelled, trying to keep him from

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Twilight screamed from inside the closet. Banging on it with everything she had. "Nopony cares about you foals. Besides, I've got what I need. And by the time you get out...if you get out, your school will close down and I will improve my reputation." Zealous said as he took the sack with Dusty inside and made off with him.

Back in the closet, Twilight, Lemon, and Minuette tried getting out, but so far they had no luck. Lyra tried looking for another way out with Twinkle while Moon Dancer did absolutely nothing but hold Spike .

"Come on! Open already!" Twilight strained, using every bit of her magic to open the door. "I can't seem to open it. It won't budge." She said, desperate to get out. "You're never going to escape. There's a magic seal on the door, he's not gonna let us out." Moondancer said bitterly, but also sadly. "But I have to, I need to get to Dusty!" Twilight said trying to scratch her way out.

"Hey girls? Why don't we try this secret compartment? It'll lead right up to the office and we should be able to get Dusty back." Lyra said, pointing to an air vent. "Nice thinking Lyra, but, how are we gonna get up there?" Lemon asked, but the answer was simple. Lyra climbed on top of Moondancer, the same with Minuette, Twinkle, and Lemon. They made a stack that almost reaches the compartment.

"Twilight, climb up us, we'll try to keep balance so you can get up there and make your way down. Once your down, go after Zealous." Moondancer said. "But I can't leave you girls here." Twilight exclaimed with fear. But luckily, the fillies had learned the levitation magic and tried using it to float up to the compartment. "Twala!" Spike said, reaching out to Twilight while crying aloud. "Just go Twilight, we'll be fine. Unless, once you come down from the office, find a way to unblock the door." Twilight followed Moondancer's directions and climbed up her friends and made it to the office.

Twilight headed out the door and scurried towards the stairs. She found the closet door where her friends were in. "Girls, I'm here." Twilight said before attempting to open the seal. "I can't open it, it seems to be blocked by some sort of seal." Twilight said, trying to open the door. "WELL, TRY TO BREAK IT!" Moondancer said, impatiently. "Ok, stand back." Twilight said before using a powerful burst of magic on it and successfully broke the seal all together.

"Come on! We've gotta help Dusty!" Twilight said, leading the group of fillies to where Zealous was heading with Spike riding on her back. "There he is. Shhhh." Twilight whispered. They sneaked over to Zealous, carrying the sack on his back. Twilight, Moondancer and Lyra helped lift the sack with their magic together. They successfully rescued Dusty. "Tha.." He began, but was quickly cut off. "Shhhhh." Twilight said as she dragged him to a hiding place.

Twinkleshine and Lemon placed the bag back on Zealous, without him noticing that Dusty was gone, and fled the scene. "Now let's go before we're caught. Twilight, can you teleport us?" Lyra asked. "I've teleported me and Dusty before, but I'm not so sure if i can teleport all seven of us." Twilight said, worried that she and her friends might not make it if she did. "Try it, Hurry." Moondancer said. Twilight released a large powerful beam of magic and successfully teleported away.

* * *

At the EEA Offices

"Chancellor Neighsay, I have come before you today to being you proof, that Celestia's school is inhabited by a beast. A creature which is half pony, and half eagle. A hippogriff." Zealous explained, showing the bag.

The agents of the EEA and their chancellor looked at each other with interest before looking back at the principal. "Oh you have. Have you? Well then, Let us see this creature, for what it's worth." The Chancellor himself said, eager to see this 'Hippogriff' in the bag.

"Oh you will Chancellor, but first I would like my reward. I want to be rewarded first before I show you the beast." Zealous asked, smirking evilly. "All in good time. But first show me." Neighsay responded, growing a little impatient.

"Of course. I can understand why can't I get rewarded first."Zealous mumbled through his breath. Zealous then opened the bag to reveal Dusty. All the agents looked inside at Dusty...only to see a bag of vegetables filling it up. "Er...Zealous? This is a bag of carrots. No Hippogriff in here. Are you pulling some sort of prank on me?" The chancellor said with anger.

Zealous looked in the bag before seeing the carrots. There was a note inside the bag saying: _Haha, Dusty will not be a part of your evil plan, and neither will we. Enjoy the carrots, they're good for your eyes. -Lemon Hearts and Friends. P.S. you'll have to pay for those_. He was dumbfounded with shock. "I...I didn't….those little brats!" He said with anger.

"Once I get my hooves on those little rats, I will catch them even if I must go through everyone of their families to get that bird!" Zealous vowed, before looking sheepishly at Neighsay. "And you better not come back, unless he's captured. Understand Zealous?" The chancellor threatened. Zealous understood before running after the little fillies.

* * *

Meanwhile at Celestia's castle

Shining Armor had just gotten all his guards together. "Ok you lot, return to your posts while I handle this." He ordered, causing them to obey his command as they returned to their right posts.

"SHINY!" Twilight squeaked, causing Shining to look around to see Twilight running up to him along with Dusty, Spike and the rest of the girls. "Twily, what's the problem, li'l sis? Why were you kids running?" He asked, getting a little concerned for her. "Mr. Cinch knows about Dusty, and he tried to send him to the EEA! He was going to close down the school for his own selfish gains!" She explained with fear.

"That's not the worst of it, Captain Armor, he also trapped Me, Lemon, Twilight, Lyra, Minuette, Spike and Twinkle in a closet, and was going to leave us there when the school is torn down...or sent to Juvenile hall." Moondancer explained. Hearing what she had said shocked Shining and his guards, clearing his throat before speaking.

"Guards, Change of Plans. Whenever you see a green unicorn stallion with a silver mane, do not let him in. Arrest him immediately once you see him." Shining commanded the guards. "Will do Captain." One of the guards spoke.

"Right, let's get you to Cadance, she'll look after you for now." Shining said as he escorted the foals towards Cadance's whereabouts. She was with her aunt at the time and was talking about her and Shining's date before he appeared with the foals behind him. "Oh, Hi Shining...wait, why are you panting? You look like something big's happened." She said with curiosity. "No, Worse. Zealous Cinch has just found out about Dusty and he tried to take him to the EEA." Shining explained before he was cut off by one of the other foals. "And he locked us in a closet so that we'll be demolished along with the school." Lyra said with fright.

Cadance gasped at this in horror before noticing a few pony agents coming their way. "It's the EEA! Fillies, Dusty, HIDE!" She said before they scattered from the scene. "Alright guards, at the ready!" Shining commanded before he followed the fillies. "Yes Captain!" all of the guards said in unison.

Zealous then explained the whole thing to the EEA agents as he chased after the fillies. "Right, when the fillies come to us, block them off, you'll have that beast...and the juveniles responsible for all this." He said, causing them to prepare themselves. "Hey, get out of our way!" One of the agents spoke harshly. "No, we only take command from Captain Armor, and you are not allowed here." One of the guards said. "I SAID GET OUT OF OUR WAY!" The agent yelled before zapping at the guards and knocking them all out. "What are you idiots waiting for? Get after them?!" Zealous spoke

The agents went inside to look for the fillies and Dusty. "What are you EEA agents doing here, Get out of the castle." Cadance ordered. "Show her your magic, guys." They did as Zealous commanded and was about to attack Cadance, but she fled when one of the EEA agents lit up his horn.

Behind the agents, Shining had lead them straight through a secret door which allowed them to escape through. Zealous was about to look through the castle with his minions, but heard a squeak of fright before looking behind him. He saw Shining escaping with the foals as he carried all of them on his back at once.

"W...Wait come back, they've got the Hippogriff!" Zealous called, but the agents couldn't hear him, leaving the cyan unicorn to chase after shining. Dusty decided to carry Twilight and sparing Shining of the trouble of carrying her. "Armor! Give me that beast!" Zealous yelled, trotting after the white unicorn stallion "NEVER!" He yelled back, bursting through the doors of the school before turning around to lock them. Shining then blocked the doorway with a metal plank before he tried finding a hiding spot.

"Shining. The EEA, They're here." Cadance said as soon as she teleported into the closet. "I know Cadance, but the door's not gonna hold for much longer, we gotta hide Dusty, fast!" Shining explained, before turning to look for another way out. Suddenly, Zealous appeared after roughly opening the door and slamming it behind him. "This has gone too far, Armor!" He growled, frightening the young ones. "That thing does not belong here, and you know it. Now give him to me, Armor!"

"Look, he's with us, just leave him alone!" Shining said, standing between Dusty and the insane Principal. "I cannot do that, He must be eliminated from Equestria, once and for all." Zealous said with a threatening tone. Twilight and the girls were frightened at the unicorn's threat along with Dusty. Spike was crying in confusion to what was happening. "It doesn't have to be like this." Shining said, trying to change the Zealous' mind. "I don't have any other choice, for me, nobody's interested in my school, allowing Students to enroll isn't enough anymore." Zealous explained, revealing his true nature.

"But closing down schools forcefully?! That's just too far!" Shining spoke in a shocked angry tone. "My school is the superior one, Celestia's school is just ordinary, and unusual. My school has EVERYTHING that Celestia's doesn't. It has everything that a little filly wants and needs, but eveypony kept going to Celestia's because her's is better. No it's not, My school has been and always will be the most superior school in Equestria." Zealous explained, oblivious to his idea exposed.

"But any of this doesn't give you the right to get rid of creatures who aren't ponies. Everyone is who they are, who they're supposed to be, who they choose to be." Dusty tried to reason with the principal, but Zealous ignored it. "LIES! Everypony in school has to be PONIES, no other creatures are supposed to be allowed in school, or in Equestria. That includes Dragons, Griffons, Phoenixes, and..whatever he is. Equestria doesn't need these Creatures. They should do us all a favor and be gone from Equestria." Zealous screamed.

"You will not lay a hoof on Dusty!" Celestia warned the Principal. "Leave him alone." Shining blocked his path and Zealous got close. "I mean it, I will exterminate every single creature who steps into Equestria, I will shut down every school that doesn't play by the rules. And I will hassle anypony, that gets in my way!" And with that, Zealous slapped Shining and Celestia out of the way and caused him to hit off the floor.

Zealous then proceeded to grab Dusty and put him in his place. "NO!" Shining yelled in fear, only to see Cadance to use her magic and made an aura around him. "LEAVE HIM ALONE YOU MONSTER!" She said with absolute anger.

"I'm not the Monster, He is. He is a Creature who doesn't belong in Equestria. He must be eliminated." He pointed a hoof to Dusty. "Over my dead body." Cadance said, angrily. "Mine too" Shining Armor said. "Make that twelve dead Bodies." Velvet said as she and Night Light stood together with Shining and Cadance, and the school fillies to protect Dusty and the others from the wicked principal. Apparently, Velvet and Night Light got word of what was happening and knew they had to help out.

Soon, many of the guards and parents appeared. "What is that? It sounds like a riot out there." One of them said with confusion, they then heard Zealous galloping towards the back of the school, trying to catch somepony.

"Zealous Cinch, I heard it all. You trapped these six innocent little foals in a closet, when the school was going to shut down for demolition. All because you want to build an EEA school under your rules. That is unaccepta..." Celestia was then cut off by an angered Zealous.

"Oh thank goodness Celestia. These fillies have been trying to stop me from getting what I want. My school was supposed to be the best and everypony is supposed to enroll in it, but they chose yours. And worst of all, you allowed a Bird creature into your school, into our society, in fact, into the whole of Equestria!" Zealous said, making everyone around him gasp.

"This proves I was right Zealous, so I'd advise you to get out of my school. He's not a monster. He's a Hippogriff. And a really nice one too. And we don't care what you say. He's staying here with them. They're a family. And I will enroll him into this school no matter what you say. He will help better my school." Celestia said with a serious tone.

"But us ponies are better in school without other creatures. It's always been our way….Hasn't it?" Moondancer asked with confusion. "Well, I have a Dragon for a friend, and he's been with me ever since I got my Cutie Mark. and...also when I took care of him during school, anyways, I feel like a sister to him." Twilight said, hugging her baby dragon. This caused everyone to awe them on how cute it was. "I want a Dragon too, Princess!" "Me Too!" "And Me!' some of the fillies and colts in school said.

"Better your school, you say Celestia? You honestly believe that this Creature will help benefit your school? NONSENSE! ALL MONSTERS LIKE THIS ONE MUST BE ELIMINATED. ONLY PONIES ARE SUPERIOR, NO DRAGONS, NO HIPPO-WHATEVER YOU CALL THEM ANYMORE, AND NO OTHER CREATURES. THEY NEED TO BE IN THEIR OWN WORLD, AWAY FROM EQUESTRIA. THEIR KIND IS NOT WELCOME HERE!" He bellowed, putting his front hooves down and causing a shockwave. "You're fired." Celestia said, with a stern look on her face.

"WHAT?! FIRED?! ME?! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" He protested against Celestia in anger. "As Princess of Equestria, Yes I harmless creatures is not acceptable in any school. And locking six fillies and a baby dragon in a closet so that they'd be destroyed with the school is not acceptable either. Everything you have done is wrong, and you know it. So you are hereby dismissed as principal." She said firmly, smirking in the process.

Reaching the limit of his anger, Zealous tried grabbing Dusty out of rage on this being Dusty's fault. But somehow out of fear, Dusty screeched in Zealous' face, emitting a sonic blast which sent him flying across the hallway and knocked into a wall.

Dusty then looked at what he did with amazement along with everypony else, causing him to stand up for himself for the first time in years. All the while, Zealous got up. "Celestia, you'll see one day that these kinds of creatures will mess up someday, and once they do, don't say I didn't warn you." He growled in anger before he was met with a mob of angry parents who demanded to take their children out of his school. Zealous then saw Chancellor Neighsay outside.

"Neighsay, you have to help me. Celestia has just let me go, for no reason at all. And I failed to get that creature for you. Please help me." Zealous begged, only to see Chancellor trot away from the ex-principal.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS CELESTIA! YOU AND THAT STUPID BIRD!" He screamed in defeat before galloping off, with his daughter who was so embarrassed by her father. Back inside, all the foals cheered for Dusty, who started smiling a little at first. "You did it Dusty, you saved our school!" Lemon Hearts said with glee. "Do you think you'd run for class president?" Moon Dancer asked "Maybe, but if i could, this is what i would say to everypony." He said feeling so happy.

[0:00] Keala Settle - This is Me (From the Greatest Showman/MLP version)

(Dusty)

 _~ I am not a stranger to the dark._

 _~ Hide away, they say, 'cause we don't want your broken parts._

 _~ I've learned to be ashamed of all my scars._

 _~ Run away, they say._

 _~ No one will love you as you are._

 _~ But, I won't let them break me down to dust_

 _~ I know that there's a place for us_

 _~ for we are glorious._

 _~ When the sharpest words want to cut me down_

 _~ I'm gonna send a flood gonna drown them out_

 _~ I am brave, I am bruised_

 _~ I am who i'm meant to be. This is me._

 _~ Look out 'Cause here I come_

 _~ and i'm marching on to the beat I drum._

 _~ I'm not scared to be seen,_

 _~ I make no apologies. This is Me._

(School Students)

 _~ (a lot of Ohs and Heys, corresponding to the beat of the song)_

(Twilight)

 _~ Another blast of magic zaps my coat._

 _~ Well let it go, now you know, I am not afraid to show._

(Dusty)

 _~ We are bursting through the barricades and reaching for the sun._

(School Students)

 _~ WE ARE WARRIORS!_

(Dusty)

 _~ That's what we've become._

(Everyone)

 _~ I won't let them break me down to dust_

 _~ I know that there's a place for us_

 _~ FOR WE ARE GLORIOUS!_

 _~ When the sharpest words want to cut me down_

 _~ I'm gonna send a flood gonna drown them out._

 _~ I am brave, I am bruised,_

 _~ I am who i'm meant to be. This is me._

 _~ Look out 'Cause here I come,_

 _~ and i'm marching on to the beat I drum._

 _~ I'm not scared to be seen,_

 _~ I make no apologies. This is Me._

(School Students)

 _~ (More ohs and Heys)_

(Dusty)

 _~And I know that I deserve your love,_

 _~There's nothing i'm not worthy of!_

 _~When the sharpest words wanna cut me down._

 _~ I'm gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out._

 _~This is brave, This is bruised,_

 _~This is who i'm meant to be. This is Me._

(Everyone)

 _~ Look out cause here I come,_

 _~ and i'm marching on to the beat I drum._

 _~ I'm not scared to be seen,_

 _~ I make no apologies, This is Me._

(School Students)

 _~ Whenever the words wanna cut me down,_

 _~ I'll send a flood to drown them out._

 _~ (ohs and heys)_

 _~ This is Me._

"Wow, Dusty. I didn't know you were a really great singer." Twilight said, smiling. "Hehe, thanks. I practice a lot while I'm in the water. I never do it in public a lot." He said nervously. Everypony cheered his name.

"That was beautiful Dusty, this song will help others accept who they are on the outside and inside." Celestia said, "I believe you'll fit in my school just fine." so Dusty joined Twilight in the school and allowed them to work together.

After those events, Twilight and Dusty became best friends and have been working on school projects together through their lives. There were a few tense moments now and then, but nothing ever broke their spirits.

...until one day.

* * *

Five Months later

It was a warm evening and everyone was outside with Dusty who had saddlebags packed. During the last few terms, Celestia had told everything that the young Hippogriff needed to know about his parents' and the rest of his Kind's whereabouts.

So, Dusty decided that it was time to go looking for his kind, hoping that he would run into them or maybe he would eventually find where they've been all these years. "Right, food check, spare clothes check, compass, check. I think that's pretty much everything." Dusty said, looking towards Shining Armor.

"Good, couldn't bare it if you did forget anything." Shining said with relief. "You're pretty sure about going out there on your own, aren't you?" Cadance asked, knowing the possible answer to the question. "Yes, there's a lot of things I gotta find out. If my parents are still alive, I need to find out. Who I am, what's my purpose. I hope you understand." Dusty said, confident to find his parents.

Celestia then appeared once she flew down to see him off. "Here you go Dusty. A map for getting you to the borders of Equestria. There have been some pointers to where your kind has gone, so when you get there, you'll need to find a few rumors or so." She explained, handing him a map. "Thank you Princess, I will be sure to send you a postcard sometime within the next week or so." Dusty said with a smile.

"That would be wonderful, Dusty. Safe Travels." Celestia said, stroking his feathers gently. "And I hope Twilight gets on well in your school. And if she happens to make some new friends, I would hope to meet them someday, and maybe they might like me." Dusty replied with a thankful tone.

The Hippogriff then prepared to take off, but was cut off by a voice who ran up to him. "Wait, Dusty." Twilight called out to her Hippogriff friend. "What is it Twilight?" He asked, turning back to his friend. Twilight then galloped up to him and gave him a big hug, before tying a red neck scarf with a Phoenix symbol on it around his neck. "It's a good luck charm, it'll keep you safe no matter what." she said, struggling to keep her voice from cracking. Dusty wanted to thank Twilight, but he then noticed that Twilight was a little upset, leaving him to hug her.

"I don't understand though...will I never see you again?" Twilight said through her tears. "I promise. I will see you again, it might take a long time, but I promise, I will see you again." Dusty said with reassurance. "Then...let me come with you, I can help can't I?" Twilight begged.

"I can't, it's not that I don't want to...I can't risk letting you come. If you get hurt, or worse...then I'll never forgive myself." He said, trying to make Twilight understand why he wouldn't risk bringing her. "Besides, I can't allow you to miss school. Don't worry, I'll be sure to bring you back a souvenir from my travels." Dusty said as a promise.

Twilight then hugged her Hippogriff friend. "I hope you find your home Dusty." Twilight said, wishing Dusty all the luck in equestria. "Even if I don't, that's the thing. Equestria is my home." Dusty stated, glad to be in the care of the princess of Equestria. "Celestia smiled, knowing "

Then, Dusty spread his wings and prepared to launch himself off the ground. "And Twilight." Dusty said as he looked back at his friend. "Keep an eye out on the horizon. I'll always be thinking about you." After speaking those words, along with taking a big run off the road, he began to fly with his own wings. He faltered at first, but he manages to recover and continue flying towards the horizon.

Everyone waved goodbye to him as this happened, although there were a few tears shedded by some of his classmates through this fond farewell.

Dusty was actually really amazing with his flying for the first time. Of course, he was seen by a couple of pegasi fillies in the clouds of Cloudsdale, especially a Rainbow Maned filly looking at Dusty's speed with amazement. The rainbow pegasus happened to be with a yellow pegasus who had two bluebirds in her mane while she stroked them, giving the impression that she loved and cared for animals.

"Woah...Fluttershy, did you see that?" The filly asked with amazement. "Wow Rainbow, that pegasus looks like he's traveling." The timid yellow filly said. "I don't think that was a pegasus." The filly known as Rainbow said, looking at the other details.

All the while, Dusty looked back towards Canterlot and saw how far he had flown away from everything he'd ever known as tears filled up his eyes a little at the thought of leaving Twilight behind.

Back in Canterlot, Twilight was thinking the same thing about Dusty. She cried at the thought that Dusty was leaving her, but she smiled either way for her friend thinking one thing and one thing only as she watched her friend travel beyond the horizon...until she was interrupted by someone.

"Duth...ty. Peenik" Spike mumbled, gaining Twilight's attention. "I know, but Dusty has to go Spike. But don't worry, you'll see him again….someday." She said before hearing the cry of a phoenix echoing towards Canterlot. Looking back towards the horizon, the little filly smiled before walking towards home. "I'll miss you, Dusty" She thought, while looking into the horizon and shedding a tear. To her, Dusty would forever be remembered as a friend to Twilight Sparkle, and one day...their friendship would be put to the test.

THE END...For now.

* * *

 **Well, that wraps up this chapter.**

 **Spell Nexus belongs to Penstroke**

 **Feel free to let me know in the commens what you know think about the story.**

 **For now, Negaboss2000 out.**


	2. Encounters of the Storm Kind

**Right then, here's the next chapter of this story**

 **Once again it was made by me and JamesisCool2014**

 **Anyways I hope you enjoy this next chapter**

 **Because here we are again with Dusty, Two years later**

 **Do enjoy and comment your thoughts on it if you want**

* * *

 **Chapter 2 - Encounters with the Storm Kind**

Beyond Equestria, Kirin Grove

Two years later

It was a rainy day and quite a good wet day for cooling down. Through the Jungles of Kirin Grove, a figure was currently walking down the path of the jungle in search of a village which would have been around his location somewhere.

The figure was revealed to be none other than Dusty Phoenix. A lot had changed for the young hippogriff after two years, he was looking a bit bigger than usual, he had his mane styled into something new and he now wore a blue sleeveless jacket under his red lucky charm scarf. He had been wandering the jungle of Kirin Grove after traveling for two years. It had been difficult the first few nights once he left Equestria, but eventually he got into the swinging things.

During those two years, Dusty had been helping many beings who were outcast, freaky looking or who couldn't even do anything like their kind could. He had gotten help for finding the rest of his Hippogriff family. He believed that if he found them, Dusty would eventually find whis true purpose in the world and who he was meant to be. This filled him with determination on giving hope to those in need and it's what kept him going ever since he left Canterlot.

He then stopped, took out a photo of him and his foalhood friend Twilight Sparkle from two years ago before he left, remembering the promise he made to her. "I promise Twilight, I will come back." He said, as he carried on to the village of the Kirins. Over the past year, Dusty had been writing letters to Twilight Sparkle and by this time, he was about to finish his next letter to her. The only problem was, the young hippogriff couldn't think of anything else to say.

He came to a bridge leading over river flowing out to sea. He was about to carry on towards the village itself, but he was suddenly stopped by a strange sound. It was loud, very loud and sounded like a huge thunderstorm. "What the…?" Dusty said to himself as he looked up into the sky. What he saw next had shocked him completely.

Above his head was a huge black smoky cloud heading straight for Kirin Grove. "That doesn't seem right. There wasn't supposed to be any thunderstorms today." He said with confusion. But then, he discovered that it was a gigantic armada, one which moved through the shrouding dark clouds like they were armies from a great big frightening storm.

These ships had a flag bearing two blue thunderbolts which acted like a storm. They were also dark and big and looked really evil. Without knowing the consequences of not helping, Dusty figured that those ships weren't a good thing.

Dusty tried heading for the village, but the ships were so fast that they got there before him while he was on foot. The ships then docked just above the houses, when that happened, dark creatures jumped off the side of the ships and landed straight in the village, attacking the poor innocent folks, taking priceless treasures and whatever they could get their grubby mitts on.

There were screams of terror from where Dusty was standing. "HELP ME, HELP! EVIL CREATURES!" One of the Kirins screamed, reaching out for her loved one. "Hehehe, shut it lady, your child belongs to us now!" A huge tan coloured Scorpion said, laughing evily as he took the child onboard one of the ships

"Give it back to them, that doesn't belong to you" A kirin knight growled, threatening to attack the creatures. "Oh yeah, who's going to stop ussssss?" A green serpent hissed bitterly, preparing to strike at his enemy. "That's enough, Isis." Another voice ordered, causing the snake to stand down.

"HSSSS, it's him! Let'ssss make way for him, and he'll come to us, and if anyone else comessss we'll attack them." The serpent to the scorpion. "Good idea, Isis." He said, giggling at this. "Give them back their baby, or else you're going to regret everything you ever did." Dusty's voice called out, causing the serpent and the scorpion to turn in his direction.

"Try ussss, you can't stop us no matter what." The serpent threatened. "What are you going to do about it anyways?" The scorpion asked stupidly. "You'll soon find out." He then used his sonic screech to take them out as a start for attacking them. Then some Kirins began to attack them. After hit by hit, the two creatures still didn't give up.

"SSSSee? You can't stop us, we won't give up. Right Mendaxssssssss?" The scorpion called Mendax nodded in reply. "You won't get away with this. I speak for the good in everyone and anyone I come across." Dusty said, glaring at Mendax and Isis. "OOOhh. What a pretty necklace. Can I sssssee it?" Isis asked rhetorically as he tried to take the necklace from Dusty, but he grabbed the serpent and took it away from him.

"No, this necklace is special to me. It was given to me by my family!" He growled. "Give it to us, and we'll let the baby go and give it back to the family it belongs to." Mendax told him. "You're bluffing." Dusty stated, knowing their plan. He was about to do another sonic screech, and they sensed it coming.

"Oh no, Isis. you know what that sound means? That screech again." Mendax, said sarcastically. "No, we can use thisssss." Isis said as the two creatures escaped to the ship with the stolen child in their grasp. "What took you so long, idiot?" An anthropomorphic anteater said rhetorically to Mendax. "SHUT UP AND GO!" Mendax yelled, having no respect for the Anteater whatsoever. The army of airships then started to depart from the village having taken everything the Kirins had done.

Dusty then used the magic within himself and the power, he used it for getting the baby back. He quickly flew with giant wings that looked a little bigger than his normal wings were. He then flew up to the ship and caused it to rock with enough strength, he flew straight on, grabbed the baby and flew back to the ground where the ship crashed safely away from the village.

The villagers cheered as Dusty handed the baby back to it's mother before turning to the serpent and the scorpion. "You may have won this time, but next time we meet, you'll be sorry you've ever messed with the Predators. You've made very powerless enemies." Mendax warned, vowing for revenge. All of a sudden, a ship different from the others came to the village. Dusty and Mendax noticed this as the ship docked beside the village and opened its doors. "Well...apparently that was quick." Mendax said in disbelief.

The dark creatures returned once again, causing Dusty to get defensive and protect the baby. But out of all the dark creatures who invaded the village, one of them looked different than the others did. Dusty was certain he saw that creature before during his travels.

"Alright Mendax, what idiotic excuse have you come up with this time?" The creature asked, appearing from his behind his minions. When revealed, the creature had the appearance of a tall anthropomorphic yeti about half the size of a Kirin house, had ebony armor on him with the same emblem as the flags on the airships, he also had black horns, a grey thunder shaped crown and blue ominous eyes.

Dusty froze, becoming a little scared by the intimidating look of this giant beast who glared down upon him. "You're kidding me Mendax, aren't you?" The beast spoke, glaring at Mendax who cowered in fear. "No sir, I'm not. tell him Isis." He yelped, putting Isis in front. "Yessssss sir, he's not lying." Isis spoke coldly. "He'd better not. I have a job to do, and you sure as well are not making it easy for me." The beast warned before turning his attention back to the Kirin village.

Everyone looked in terror at this beast as he growled at the kirins in annoyance. "Alright, who's been interfering with my conquest?" He groaned angrily, looking around and hoping to find someone to punish before briefly turning his attention to Dusty. "HEY YOU, yeah I'm talking to you, you big bully!" One of the Kirins said, causing the beast to look towards him. "You dare talk to me that way?!" The beast roared angrily. "Just who do you think you are, coming into our village and taking everything we value?" The village leader asked.

"I am the Storm King, The "Soon to be" ruler of Kirin Village. And there is no one, no one at all, who can stop the storm!" The beast known as The Storm King growled. "Yessssss sire, we will also take all of your valuable items and keep them for ourselvessssss." Isis stated.

As he spoke, Mendax showed off all the stolen treasures from the village like an absolute buffoon. More of the treasures were being hauled in by a pug faced hedgehog, the female anteater, a big crocodile with a metal jaw and a Giant Panda. "Mendax, stop making a fool out of yourself and get over here!" The Anteater yelled, causing Mendax to growl in frustration. "You never let me have any fun Antemis." He muttered.

The sight of The Predators hauling in treasures had caught Dusty's eye. "I can't let them get away with the treasures, I need to do something, and fast!" He thought, looking for a way to stop them for a while. So, he snuck away, trying to think of another plan without being disturbed, but unfortunately, the hedgehog turned around and spotted him from afar. "Hey my king! Thereth thomeone elthe over there, he'th looking directly at uth!" The hedgehog said, pointing to Dusty. "Oh, darn it!" Dusty said before he took off through the forest once again.

"I'll send the Howlers." The Storm King then whistled with his two fingers, calling out some wolves from his ship. "Hunt for that….whatever that thing is. He'll ruin the plan. Wolfkhan, you know what to do." The Storm King ordered, pointing at Dusty. "With Pleasure, your highness." he replied, howling for the rest of his pack before chasing Dusty, growling and snarling.

"I need to get out of here. But those wolves are pretty fast." Dusty said, running away as fast as he could from the wolves. "Keep following that bird thing. He knows about the king's plans. He must be purged." One of the wolf brothers said before losing sight of Dusty. "Seems like there's only one way out of this." he sees the nearest patch of water.

Jumping into the water, Dusty quickly used his necklace to turn into his seapony form to hid from the creatures. He stayed underwater in a little cave until the predators had left, but when he looked out of the cave, he check to make sure if the coast was clear before heading to the surface.

The wolves had stopped in the their tracks at the river, sniffing for Dusty's scent. "Brother Wolf, the trail ends here, we've lost his scent." One of the wolves said to his leader. The leader of the pack then pushed past, revealing to be a scary dark grey wolf wearing a black Storm outfit like the rest of his pack, only it had a dark red moon on it, his eyes were silver with hatred and...he was the real deal.

"He couldn't have just vanished..." Wolfkhan muttered, looking all around for any signs of movement. "I heard a splash, brother. He might have gotten into some water and swam away." One of the brothers stated. "Impossible...he could have drowned if he tried swimming. The water is really deep, and no one could survive for so long underwater." He said, sniffing the water, dangerously close to Dusty who was shaking in fear.

Wolfkhan then ordered his pack to spread out and hunt down Dusty for The Storm King before he went off in the direction of the village. The young hippogriff then poked his head out of the water once they left. He sighed in relief, knowing that he'd be safe for now.

"I gotta get some help, but who and what?" He said, drying himself up after sitting on the river bank. "You know, the what isn't the case here. But the who, that's another thing." A voice near him spoke up. "Who are you?" Dusty asked with fright, looking all around to find the source of the voice.

Dusty couldn't pinpoint where the source came from, which made him nervous. "Hello? Anyone there?" He asked again, still getting no answer from the voice. "Was it all in my head? I'm pretty sure that the voice was close by." He thought, hoping to find the answer.

Suddenly, something touched him on his back, giving him the chills. He gasped as he turned around slowly, only to see a friendly Dark purple Kirin with a rich purple long mane and tail, strawberry coloured eyes. "Oh, you scared me. I was hoping you would be in the village where the other Kirins are." Dusty said, noticing that he knew nothing of the current invasion within the village.

"Why? I'm on my daily route for gathering food." The Kirin said with confusion. "Well, thank goodness you're here, and safe." Dusty said with relief. "Safe? What do you mean." Once the Kirin asked, Dusty had a look on his face which was one of grim. "Look." He pointed to the village with his claw. The Kirin gasped and dropped her food onto the ground.

She saw menacing looking airships surrounding her village and a pack of predators trashing it and almost destroying everything. "Oh no, NANA!" She screamed for her grandmother, But no one could hear her calling out. "From the looks of it, there's nothing we can do for now. We better get you someplace safe right now. Away from the Predators, and the Storm King." Just by saying his name, made a thundering sound in the sky, frightening the pair in the process.

"Is there someplace where we could hangout and/or live until this whole thing blows over?" Dusty asked. The Kirin nodded in reply, as she wiped a tear or two from her face. She showed him through the forest and to a small shack, big enough for both of them. "Is that all you have? Nevermind let's go." Dusty said before he allowed the female kirin to enter the shack first before him. Once inside, Dusty figured that he'd better say something to change the current situation subject. "By the way, I'm Dusty." He said, introducing himself. "Kira." The female kirin called Kira replied, shaking the Hippogriff's claw.

"You dropped your food out there, when you saw the village being taken over. Maybe I can help you get some more?" Dusty asked, offering his help. "Yes, you could come with me and help me get more food." Kira said in explaining the situation so far. "Do you live here in this shack, all alone? No friends at all?" Dusty asked, looking around the shack to see what little content it had inside. "Yes and no, you're here now. Meaning that you'll be here too." Kira replied, stating the current company she now had.

Dusty put all of his belongings on the floor before trying to figure out what he and Kira were going to do to get the food from the village. "Hmm...Maybe there could be an open passage through the forest perhaps...nah that'll never work." He said, dismissing the idea. "Is there any sort of garden around here, Kira?" Dusty asked, thinking of an alternative way. "No, sadly, the only garden we have is near the village." Kira replied, rubbing her foreleg sadly. "Oh, Griffinfeathers. Where are we going to get food now?" He wondered to himself with a hint of stress.

"Wait a moment...there is a secret passageway into the village. It's not to far from here, but we'd risk walking through the village to get the food if what you saw is true." Kira explained, pulling out a map of Kirin Grove and showing it to Dusty. Dusty then saw the secret passageway into the village's garden and thought of a way to enter the village without being seen.

As he looked through the map, he saw that the passageway lead underneath the village hall beside the gardens. "Aha, that's our entrance point." Dusty said before grabbing a few items from his pack. ''We'll have to do this while nobody's around, that way we'll slip out unnoticed.'' Dusty suggested before heading for the entrance to the tunnel.

"But wait, Dusty...why are you helping me? I've been a bit of a nuisance to my folk and apart from my Nana, I'm….nobody to them." Kira admitted, Dusty then went over to the Kirin and looked at her sincerely. "Because, that's what I do. Help others who don't fit in or are outcasts. I tell them that it doesn't matter what or who others think they are. What matters is what they are on the inside." Dusty finished, causing Kira to feel a bit better. "And I don't think you're a nobody, you shouldn't feel that way. What you need most, is a friend." Putting his claw on her shoulder, Dusty remembered what he felt like when he was young in Canterlot.

Kira started tearing up, but then wiped them off before showing Dusty to the caves. "Alright, let's go find the tunnel. It'll be around this area and...well that's pretty much everything on it." She said before leading the way. After getting to the secret passageway, Kira revealed it via a stone disk which she rolled out of the way with her strength. She and the young hippogriff then proceeded to walk through the tunnel. "So...How long have you and your kind been here in the village?" Dusty asked, curious to know more about the Kirins during the walk through the tunnel. "Well, we've been here for 200 years. Kirin Grove is a safe haven for all Kirins, especially anyone who travels." Kira explained, mentioning a few things about the past.

* * *

After coming out the side of the secret tunnel, Dusty and Kira looked around the village and saw it being patrolled like it was some kind of military base. Many of The Storm King's minions had their fun in using the poor folk as slaves.

"So you were unsuccessful in finding that...thing?" The Storm King asked Wolfkhan. "No master, he escaped. He is gone. He went underwater and we can't find him." The wolf leader explained to him. "At least Isis and Mendax are better searchers than your pack...not talking about you of course. Speaking of which." The king himself said, looking over at the serpent and scorpion.

"Isis, did you find anything?" The Storm King called over to the serpent. "No sssssire, I found nothing yet. Besidessss, if I did I would have put it on the ship. But I did find thisssss." Isis then showed the king a map. He then realized where this was and sent the two to the place. "Hey Dusty? Do you ever have the feeling that you're being watched?" Kira whispered to the young hippogriff. "Sometimes." He replied in a nervous whisper. After that, they found the secret passage, only to be stopped by Mendax and Isis.

"Hello Nice Birdy, and you Young Kirin. Neither of you are welcome into the Storm King's Village, unless you have something for us." Mendax said, revealing that the Storm King had taken over the village of Kirins. "Mendax, it'sssss them. The one we need. The one the Ssssstorm king ordered usssss to capture." Isis spoke, recognising Dusty instantly.

"Run." Dusty said to Kira, telling her to go back to the shack. Kira tried running back to the tunnel, but a hedgehog and an alligator with a metal jaw had suddenly came out of nowhere and blocked the path in the process. "Nowhere to run or hide now, Kirin. You belong to the Storm King now. And you're not going to escape again." The alligator said in a raspy yet scary voice and also scaring Kira in the process as he bit down on his metal jaw. "Oooh, both of you are in trouble now, hahahah. Good one Jawth." The hedgehog said to the alligator called Jaws.

"Thanks, I've been practicing, Now let's take these guys to the Storm King." Jaws said, getting closer and closer to Kira and Dusty. "Get 'em Jaws!" Mendax said to the Alligator. "Yessssss, get them Jaws. Show them how it'ssssss done!" Isis hissed. Dusty and Kira were a little nervous with Jaws closing in on them and with the Predators behind them. Suddenly, Dusty pulled out some kind of orb which emitted smoke once he threw it onto the ground.

In the process, the predators attacked each other in the process and gave Dusty enough time to get away with Kira. "THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!" Mendax yelled. "Let then go, We'll give them a head sssssstart." Isis hissed before the predators were all called. "That was a close one. Dusty, thanks for the save back there." The young Kirin said with relief as she and Dusty then emerged from a nearby pond beside the gardens as a Seapony and Seadragon.

Once they got out of the pond and dried themselves off. They then turned back into their normal selves before heading into the Kirin Gardens. "Wow..." Dusty said with amazement. "You look beautiful, underwater." Kira blushed when Dusty said that. "Let's go find some food." Kira said, going to a huge tree which grew a bunch of fruit such as Apples, Oranges, Bananas, Pears, Watermelons, Blueberries, Grapes, Strawberries and so much more. "Woah, this tree has Everything. All fruits on them." Dusty said in amazement.

"This is our sacred and oldest tree in the village, we call it, Yggdrasil. It gave us food in our time of need, and has aided us for generations since." Kira explained, picking a strawberry from the branches. "Try one. They're really tasty." She said as she gave Dusty one of the fruit. He took a bite out of an apple, and when he tasted it's juice, he suddenly felt delightful from the taste. "Woah, this tastes...really...Juicy. I LIKE IT!" He said in excitement out loud. "Hey, I brought some baskets, let's take some back to the shack." Kira said, taking out the baskets and placing various fruit into them. "But the only way out is...Through the town." Kira was afraid to go into town when she forgot that the town was taken over by the Storm King.

Rolling his eyes in realisation, Dusty then tried thinking of a way to get back to the hidden tunnel without getting caught. "We can go back through the pond, but the baskets might be heavy to carry underwater. So that's out." He explained to Kira who agreed with him. "What if...no that wouldn't work." Kira said, immediately dismissing her idea. Dusty and Kira then noticed a big hole through the top of the mountain. "Hey Dusty, you can fly through there, and carry the baskets back to the shack. But you have to fly low so they don't notice you." Kira said, feeling like it was a bad idea.

"Trust me Kira, I know what to do in this situation." Dusty said before he flew towards the hole in the top, looking around to make sure no one was watching him, and flew back to the shack. Kira then followed him from the ground, making sure that she's not followed. A few moments afterwards, the duo made it to the shack safely, without no one catching them, or following them. "Phew, I was really sure we were going to be goners, Dusty. But hey, we're here safe and we got plenty of food to last for a long time." Kira said with relief. Dusty then tried offering Kira some food, only to find that his supplies were half gone. "Where in Equestria…" He said to himself as he searched for more supplies which had suddenly vanished in an instant.

"What happened to the supplies? Where did they go?' Dusty said, asking Kira. "Odd...I could have sworn..." said the Kirin. They soon notice that there were a few of them left. "This is strange, we had plenty of food when we left and now...there's barely any left." Kira stated in disbelief. They then noticed a trail of the food supplies, all eaten, lying on the ground. "Kira, Have you been eating some of our food on the way here?" Dusty asked with confusion. "No, I would never..." She started, but was cut off when they both heard a crunching sound.

Following the trail of his supplies, Dusty then saw what had been taking the food. It was a little white furred baby harp seal, munching on an apple. "So this is the culprit...a baby harp seal?" Dusty said with confusion, although, it did look really cute with it's eyes staring right at Dusty's. "It's sort-of cute." Kira said with awe. The seal barked with excitement as Dusty started getting a little closer to it. It clapped it's flippers in delight, when it saw Dusty before then jumping into the Hippogriff's arms and licked his face.

"Wow, how'd a cute little thing like this get lost in the woods?" Kira wondered, looking around for a herd of harp seals but couldn't find any of them. "I dunno, but either way, I'm not one to leave this poor little thing out here to suffer. Would it be ok with you...if we bring her with us?" Dusty asked. Kira nodded, agreeing to take the seal along. "Wait...how did you know the seal is a girl?" Kira asked with confusion.

Dusty wanted to explain how the harp seal was female, but decided not to say anything else and knew because of it's eyelashes. The harp seal seemed really calm for a baby and seemed to only want love as they headed back to the hut. "We need to name this baby seal. We can't keep calling her it all the time right?" Dusty said, trying to come up with a name for the seal. "How about...Harpie?" The young hippogriff suggested. The seal the barked in agreemend before jumping up onto Dusty and licked him.

"So...Dusty. What's a young Hippogriff like yourself doing out here all alone, traveling the wilds?" Kira asked, wanting to know a little more on Dusty himself. "Well...nah you wouldn't be interested in that." He replied, not wanting to tell Kira his past. "But, I can tell you what I was doing before I came here. I was going all around Equestria and a few other lands, looking for all of the beings that were being casted out of their families, parties, even their own homes. beings who were claimed to be Freaks, or unusual, or ugly. Beings who think that they don't belong, ones who think that others don't like them because they're different. I go around and tell them that they're important and special in their own way. That they mean more to the world, than others think they do." Dusty explained, fascinating Kira and Harpie.

"So...how did you start out at first?" Kira asked, wanting to know the source of Dusty's ambitions. "I first started as a fledgeling, when I first entered Princess Celestia's school in Equestria. Everyone there was making fun of me because I was different. I was not a pony, like them. I was a hippogriff, with amazing talents. But they didn't see that. All they saw was a being who didn't belong in this world. But, growing up, I got to live with it. I accepted myself the way I was, and I wanted to believe that others like me had felt the same way, so I had to do something about it." Dusty explained, showing that Kira wasn't the only outcast.

Harpie then pulled something from Dusty's bags and caused them to fall over and spilling everything out. One of the items that Harpie had in her mouth, was a photograph and immediately, Dusty recognised it. "Twilight." He said, seeing herself and a very happy Dusty sitting together with the cutest baby Spike in between them. "Who's Twilight?" Kira asked, looking at the photo. "An old friend." Dusty replied without looking at Kira or Harpie. He knew that it was two years since he'd seen her, but he didn't think that it was this long. The worst of it came when he thought about the possibility of her forgetting him once he left.

Kira could have sworn she saw a tear rolling down Dusty's face. "Are you crying?" She asked with concern. "No, it's...sweat." He said with a panicked expression. But it was given away when Harpie sadly went over to him and snuggled into the young Hippogriff causing more tears to stream out. "You miss her don't you?" Kira asked, seeing the looks on his face. "Yes, she was the one who helped me see who I truly was on the inside, she helped me accept the way I am. She's like a sister to me." Dusty explained, revealing the source of all his ambitions in the first place. "Then...why did you... " Kira started to ask, but then a noise came from outside the hut.

"Did you hear something?" Dusty said as he went to the window to look for the source of the sound. Outside, there was nothing in sight. Dusty opened the door to see what caused the noise. Suddenly from out of nowhere, the predators appeared in the entrance of the hut and ambushed Dusty, Kira and Harpie.

"By orders of the Storm King, you are all to come with us this instant." Jaws said, with Isis and Mendax pushing them out the door. Gravelite and Antemis were also there growling and scaring them. "Mendaxsssssss, we got them now. What shall we do?" Isis said, questioning the Scorpion. "Simple: We deliver them to The Storm King and show him this...thing and his companions." He replied with an evil look. "Hey, I won't let you talk about Harpie like that!" Kira yelled "I was actually talking about him." Mendax said, pointing at Dusty who growled in anger. "Let's go, the boss is waiting for us." Antemis said as she grabbed Harpie, Kira and Dusty. Dusty then looked back at the giant panda who growled at him upon contact. "What are you staring at?!" He growled in anger. "Eyes in front you freak!" Antemis shouted.

"Kira, I..I didn't. I would never..." He tried speaking to her, but she ignored him, thinking that he set her up. "And if you musssst know, we found your special fruit tree. And it'ssssss ours now." Isis hissed evilly, causing the duo to gasp in horror. "No! Not the tree of life! It's too important to us!" Kira screamed with horror. "Not to mention that we saw you at the tree earlier and we were following you ever since." Antemis said to Kira. "Hey, you were supposed to let the stupid Kirin think that that...thing set her up, now you've blown it!" Jaws groaned, feeling like Antemis blew it. "Whatever, Let'sssss get them to the ship. The Ssssssstorm king will be very pleased with ussssssss." Isis said as they approached the path to the village.

* * *

Back at the village

The Storm King had discovered the Yggdrasil tree and tried lifting it with one of his ships, but had no luck so far. "Come on you idiots, put your backs into it!" He bellowed. The bellowing made no difference as it still didn't come out and nearly broke the hull of the airship. "Ugh, what does it take to get this stupid thing out of the dirt? Blegh!" Groaning in annoyance, The Storm King then looked towards one of his minions. "It's too heavy for the ship to carry." He said stupidly, puffing and well out of breath. "WELL TRY HARDER!" The Storm King demanded, getting angered at the failure of his own minions who got scared and did what they were ordered.

It was then that his Predators had returned to him with Dusty and Kira held captive along with Harpie, they entered the village and were in time to see their master taking his anger out on his minions. "Hey, boss?" Mendax said, which was a huge mistake to him. "WHAT?!" The Storm King bellowed in Mendax's face, scaring him and the predators in the process. "Um...we're back from that mission you sent us on." He squealed in the process, causing the king to calm down afterwards.

"Oh good, so lemme see 'em." As ordered by The Storm King, Mendax brought up Dusty, Kira and Harpie before placing them in front of him. Dusty looked up at the beast along with Kira and Harpie. "Perfect. A freaky bird, a kirin who escaped from the village, and a...baby harp seal?" The Storm King said before he looked confused upon seeing Harpie for the first time.

"Indeed, they were tricky to find at first and they did put up a bit of a fight...but I single handedly managed to catch them in their hut." Mendax lied, wanting to take all the credit. "Liar, It wassssss me who helped too." Isis hissed venomously. "Hey, I was the one who dragged them here, so I should be the one to take credit!" Antemis said. "Do i get a say in this?" Jaws asked idiotically. "SHUT UP JAWS" All of them said to the alligator.

"So...anyways, what's happening with the tree?" Antemis decided to ask, looking at the cracked hull of the airship from trying to lift it. "This stubborn piece of wood won't budge, not even an inch." One of the minions said. "Alright...that tears it…'' The Storm King said to himself before walking over to one of his minions. "Get every Kirin in the village, and round them up, especially the elders." He ordered as his minions spread throughout the village to collect every villager and child alike.

All the while, Kira and Dusty overheard this, and couldn't do anything with the rest of the Predators watching them evilly. Dusty felt like saying something, but because of what happened at the hut, Kira still ignored him, but tried her best to calm down with Harpie looking at her worryingly. The minions then gathered up every Kirin in the village to interrogate. "What's the meaning of this?!" The village leader said with demands to know what was happening. "Well where do I start? Oh yes, I'm taking your magic tree, give it up and I won't bring any harm to your kind." The Storm King explained with a vicious tone, frightening everyone.

Everyone stayed quiet, wanting to keep the secret of the yggdrasil tree safe. "Hmm... tough crowd, alright. Anyone want to maybe give me a little sliver of a secret?" The Storm King continued to ask, still nobody answered. "Fair enough. The maybe it's best if I use...force." After speaking ominously, The Storm King snapped his fingers, and Wolfkhan appeared with a few of his pack as they snarled viciously at the Kira who looked pretty scared by their fangs.

Everyone in the village was scared for Kira's safety, even her Nana. "So here's what I propose: you tell me the secrets of this tree and I won't harm your granddaughter. But...for everytime you all ignore me, I will set the wolfpack on her." The Storm King ominously said as the wolves started circling the poor Kirin. "Hey, leave Kira out of this. She's innocent!" Dusty yelled, trying to get the attention, which worked a little bit. But even caused Wolfkhan's pack to snarl at Dusty. "So...little one. Do you know that...thing?" Wolfkhan asked with a snarl in his tone. Kira gulped and shook in fear as the wolf came closer to her.

"Um…I...just met him this mor...ning?" Kira nervously stammered, giving The Storm King satisfaction. "Ha. Well, anyone wanna answer now?" He asked, hoping someone would speak up to him. Nobody even spoke once again, but they were definitely on the verge of speaking. "Very well. Sick her." After giving that command, Wolfkhan suddenly leapt onto Kira and pinned her down and opened his jaws widely and pinned her neck down with it, his teeth dangerously close to her neck. "squeak!" Harpie squealed loudly in horror. Everyone else screamed as this happened as well.

Dusty tried to stop Wolfkhan, but Mendax and Jaws held him back no matter what he tried doing. "NO! You Monster! Leave Her alone!" He screeched, trying to get past the predators. "D...Du...Dusty. Dus.." Kira said, while passing out onto the floor. "Well...looks like dinner time my brothers." One of the Howlers said preparing to get his meal out of the poor Kirin, frightening everyone in the village.

"Lunch is served." Wolfkhan said, licking his lips and preparing to close his jaws around Kira's neck."WAIT! Stop, leave her be, I'll tell you everything. Just don't eat her!" Dusty pleaded, gaining the attention of everyone. Wolfkhan then removed his jaw from Kira's neck and looked back at him. "Oh? And what would you know about this tree then? How do we release it from it's...whatever?" The Storm King asked, marching over to him and looking down upon him. "I...I don't know." Dusty said nervously. One of the kirins then stepped forth to help Dusty.

"I can help with that." One of the Kirins said. "Go on?" Mendax asked with curiosity. "If you twist the tree around clockwise three times, you will then be able to get the magic from within. Now could you please let my Granddaughter go?" She said, revealing to be Kira's grandmother. "Ah there we go, that wasn't too hard now was it? Gravelite, go twist the tree around three times." The Storm King ordered to the giant panda.

"Yes Sir. Gravelite love to!" Gravelite said, stomping his way over to the tree and turning it clockwise, one time. "Grav, don't listen to her. She's lying, I can tell because..." Mendax started to say, but he ignored Mendax and continued, turning the tree, one more time. But when Gravelite turned the tree a third time, a magic beam bursted from within and knocked the giant panda off his feet, rendering him unconscious. "What?! How is this possible?!" The Storm King bellowed in frustration. "I tricked you, there's no way we would give you the secret of the Yggdrasil." Nana spoke, sounding very brave towards Mendax.

"Why you ignorant stupid…!" Antemis started, advancing angrily towards the elderess. "What if we turned it anti-clockwise?" Grubber stupidly suggested. "Nobody asked your opinion chubby hedgehog." Antemis said bitterly. "Or maybe...it could work." The Storm King suggested, getting several of his minions to get Gravelite on his feet. The Storm King then ordered his Panda minion to do the same, only turn the tree the other way. In doing so, the tree suddenly made a loud clunk noise, telling that the tree had been unlocked before it then lifted off the ground and revealed a staircase underneath leading down into a secret cavern.

"Where did this come from? Let's go find out." The Storm King, The Howlers and the Predators all went inside the secret staircase. Dusty then goes up to the Kira, who was badly injured. "Kira, Kira are you ok?" He asked, fearing the worst. Harpie even nudged the Kirin to see if she was ok. Kira then groaned softly after being unconscious for so long before opening her eyes slowly and turned towards Dusty. "Wh..what..What happened?" Kira asked, Dusty then sighed in relief before he helped the young Kirin to her feet. "You're ok, it's ok. I was worried for a second." Dusty said before noticing the injury on her neck. "Kira, oh my goodness. Are you alright my child?" Nana asked, worried Sick for her granddaughter.

"What happened while I was out?" Kira asked, looking all around. "Everyone was worried for you. That beast threatened to kill you if we didn't hand over the secrets of our tree, so we told them to save your life...or at least they found out somehow." Nana said, looking over Kira's wounds while explaining what happened. Gasping in horror, Kira then turned towards Dusty who looked pretty taken back by the look on her face. "Kira..." Dusty started, but Kira stopped him there. "Dusty, we have to stop The Storm King before he finds out about the sacred jewel seed of our tree." Nana said, begging for help.

"But what about Kira?" Dusty asked, worried about his friend. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. But right now we must head down the staircase." "Helping people is what I do best. So where do we go once we get down the staircase?" Dusty said, looking for a way in. "I've known our caves since I was very young." Nana said, offering to show Dusty the way. "Then I'm going with you in that case." Kira said confidently despite her wounds. "No, Kira. you're badly hurt, you might make it worse if you do." Nana insisted, trying to get Kira to sit down. "I insist, I mistook Dusty for being one of those beasts, so I think it's time I made up for thinking that." She said, surprising everyone in the village.

Harpie was impressed by Kira so much, she clapped in excitement. "Very well...but don't blame me if...well nevermind, it's too harsh." Nana said before she started to lead Dusty and Kira towards the staircase. "And Kira...I honestly didn't mean for any of this to happen...to you mainly." Dusty said apologetically. "I know you didn't, and I believe you." Kira said with a warm smile. The moment was suddenly interrupted by Harpie barking in between them with joy.

* * *

After getting down the staircase

Nana showed Dusty and Kira the way to the chamber where the jewel was being held. But they had to hurry before the powersource fell into the hands of evil. "So how special is this jewel Nana?" Dusty asked out of simple curiosity. "This jewel is our birthright. Our ancestors help it and in return, it provides the fruit. But if it's disturbed or taken, then the tree will die." Nana explained, showing ancient drawings which showed the history of the kirins. "Woah...sounds pretty intense, this guy is such a greedy monster isn't he?" Dusty said, giving his opinion of The Storm King.

"Oh no...he doesn't know what he's doing." Kira said with realisation, speeding up as soon as she heard this. "Kira wait, it's too dangerous, even for you!" Nana called out to her granddaughter in fear. Dusty and Haprie then looked at each other in fear of danger before running after the two Kirins to try and catch up with them.

In the chamber, The Storm King had some of his minions try to take the jewel by force, but many of them failed under it's great power of the tree's roots, like it didn't want to be disturbed or harmed. "What's the delay Mendax?" The Storm King asked impatiently. "The roots are putting up a bit of a fight, so we can't take the jewel." Mendax explained from the looks of things at this moment.

"Just keep trying. I need that jewel, no matter what it takes, you will get the jewel, understand!" Threatening Mendax, The Storm King sounded like he was going to pound Mendax into the ground. "You heard them lads, get that gem!" Mendax yelled, causing the minions to panic. " _Who dares to disturb me?_ " The jewel spoke, attacking the predators, the howlers and everyone else wherever.

"Stop!" A voice from the chamber's entrance spoke. Everyone turned around to see Kira looking furious at them but barely able to stand with her neck injuries. "Ah...well if it isn't the little Kirin who almost became lunch to my brothers." Wolfkhan mocked bitterly. "Do not touch that jewel, that's our sacred birthright, if you remove it, it will cause major destruction to our village." Nana warned.

The Storm King then looked over to Nana before speaking. "So what? Then your village is just one less threat to worry about." He said, not caring about the village's fate whatsoever, upsetting Kira and angering Dusty. "But these innocent people could get hurt, or worse they could all die, don't you care at all?!" He said trying to stand up to the mighty beast. "Oh, excuse me, could you say that again? I had a bug in my ear at the moment." The Storm King said, Mocking Dusty.

"You could hurt these kirins, please, stop this." Dusty said, on the verge of tears. "Could you please speak up? I can barely hear you when you whisper." The evil king said once again, this time really getting on Dusty's nerves. "You're taking that jewel, and for what? Conquest? Your actions will have consequences!" Dusty said, speaking a little louder than he usually did.

The Storm King used his clawed-hand as a mouth, mocking Dusty while he speaks. "You know what Little bird? I do not want to hear it. Every place, every village, every kingdom and everyone there will be taken over by me. And everything will be mine, forever. And there is no way, in taratus, that you can stop me!" The Storm King said, pointing his finger at Dusty before he shoved him back.

"Grr, you can't do this! I won't let you!" Dusty screeched, charging towards The Storm King without warning. "Too bad, Chum." Mendax said, stabbing his tail into the ground and nearly hitting Dusty. "You're nobody, just a little freak. You'll never be special to all these people and that's why you'll never stop us." Mendax laughed. "Grr, Gravelite Smash!" Gravelight said, smashing through the tree's roots and taking the sacred jewel.

When that happened, the spirit guardian ancestors protecting the jewel faded as the glowing symbols started to dim placing the whole room in near darkness. "Ugh, Gravelite got gem." Gravelite said with his big mouth. "No...please, I beg of you. Put it back, we cannot survive without the tree's magic." Nana pleaded, trying to take the stone. "Gravelite want gem! Gravelite want smash spirits!" Gravelite angrily said to the elder Kirin.

"In other words, get lost you old fool, this is our business and not yours." Jaws said bitterly, chomping near her. "Yesssssss, listen to him. Go away, and leave usssssss be." Isis said right into Nana's face. "You have no idea what we Kirins are capable of. So back down!" Nana said, starting to use her magic on The Predators. "Oh no, She's going to use Magic on us! I'm so scared right now! Oh who cares about that, what we want is that magic gemstone and tree!." Mendax exclaimed, sarcastically.

The Storm King then grabbed Nana by the neck and lifted her off the ground. "NANA!" Kira screamed with worry. "Ugh, too sappy. Take her to the ship, and bring that fluffy little dog too." The Storm King ordered, allowing his minions to take Kira and Harpie as they tried fighting their grasps. "Please, why are you doing this?" Nana asked the Storm King with a raspy voice as he looked at her evilly. "Because, I'm The Storm King, I can do whatever I want, to whoever and whatever I want to." He said evilly, throwing Nana against the wall and caused her to fall onto the ground in pain. "Nana" Kira screamed.

"Dust...y..." Nana spoke through her rasped voice as she weakly looked over towards Dusty. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Kira screamed, slipping out of Mendax's claw. "Dus...ty..." Nana spoke once again. "Wha...what's wrong?" Dusty asked with concern, trying to use his powers to heal Nana, none of it seemed to work. "My time...has come...But before I go...I must tell you...about...your future." She said, trying to hold on a little longer. Nana took one of Dusty's feathers before using her magic to reveal something important towards his future. " _If you continue down your path...you will become a shining hope for everyone across our world. With enough friends at hand, a pack of ponies, a baby dragon, outcasted beings, a cat, a band of Pirates and the rest of your kind, you will be able to defeat The Storm King and restore peace to all who have fallen._ " She said before pointing to Dusty's necklace.

" _Your necklace...it's true power is yet to be unlocked. Once you find the true nature of your pure heart, you will gain it's full power...as it was foretold by your father..._ " Nana said coughing uncontrollably. "My Father, wh..What do you know about my kind? What do you know about my family?" Dusty asked, hoping to hear more. " _A great many things little one...but those I cannot tell you as of this moment. You must find it out for yourself._ " Nana explained, causing Dusty's head to lower slightly. " _Please...take care of...Kira..._ " With that final wish within her breath, Nana suddenly glowed causing her body to lift up off the floor in the process.

Kira was mortified and tried running towards Nana. Dusty put his arm out, stopping Kira from running to her. "Nana, please don't leave me!" Kira begged, tears flowing through her eyes. "No Kira. it could be dangerous." Dusty said, trying to prevent anything bad from happening to her. Suddenly, the Kirin guardian spirits appeared out of nowhere and used their power on Nana who then became one with them. Her eyes then awoke and looked down at Kira and Dusty before speaking. " _Do not worry child...you will know when the time comes for you to save your homelands, until then...save our village._ " Once it finished speaking, Nana the turned towards Kira to wave farewell to her as a magic gateway appeared, allowing the spirits pass through it.

After that...the elder kirin disappeared, no longer in the room, no longer...amongst anyone. Kira was so devastated by this and started crying with only Dusty and Harpie to comfort her. Everyone else who watched, didn't seem as interested. "Well...that was a huge waste of time. Bring 'em to my best ship and lock all three of them with the rest." The Storm King ordered, his minions causing them to grab the young ones and carry them out of the chamber. "Nana...no..." Kira cried, losing everything she had when her grandmother passed on through the realm of guardians.

* * *

Outside in the village

The Storm King had got his minions to load up all the valuable objects onto the ships again, but this time with more out of the village than ever. "Yes, another village bites the dust!" He said triumphantly. Kirins were left frightened as parts of the village had already started to crumble. The buildings were beginning to collapse onto the ground. "Do you really believe that that bird is a threat my lord?" Wolfkhan asked with concern. "Please, he's merely a kid, he's no threat at all." The Storm King said, ignoring the possibility.

"Ugh, do we have to bring this rock?! I'm sure there's plenty more rocks where we come from my King." Jaws groaned, carrying a golden rock from the village. "If it's valuable like this, then it's needed. Especially for my son." The Storm King said, annoying the alligator as he dragged the rock onboard the airship. As mentioned, The Storm King's only son, The Prince, looked down at his father's evil doings and shook his head in sadness before running into his room.

Upon The Storm King's best ship, a blue coloured blimp holding a golden boat, Mendax brought Kira, Dusty and Harpie onto the deck and shoved them onto it. "Alright you useless runts, you'll be working on this ship from now on. You'll be sorted into your group tomorrow morning and when you are, you'd better not disappoint, otherwise...well we'll get to that part later." The giant scorpion said evilly.

"You'll never get away with this you big bully! Actions have consequences!" Dusty said angrily to Mendax. "Ugh, shut up." Mendax said, whacking Dusty on the head with his claw, rendering the young Hippogriff unconscious. Frightening Kira and Harpie when this did happen. Once the ships were loaded up, they took off with the king himself looking back towards the village. "Well folks, I'd say it's been a pleasure...nah it hasn't really. Good riddance to you all. Hahahaha!" He laughed. " YOU CRUEL MONS,,," One of the Kirins said, before one of the collapsing buildings came crashing down beside him, scaring him in the process. The airships then flew away, preparing to destroy some other land.

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

 **Ooooh...**

 **Looks like we've got a cliffhanger**

 **Tune in next time to see what happens next ^^**

 **For now though**

 **Negaboss2000 out**


	3. Phoenix Rising

**Happy 4th of July from Negaboss2000**

 **So this next and final part of the prequel was decided by me and JamesisCool2014 (who also helpd me create this final chapter) to put this on at this date to honor the independance day**

 **Please enjoy and I don't forget to comment your thoughts on this chapter ^^**

* * *

 **Chapter 3 - Phoenix Rising**

A long while later

Dusty awoke in a cell with Kira and Harpie trying to wake him up. "Dusty, Dusty please wake up!" Kira cried out. Dusty then groaned before getting on all fours again. "I'm ok...what happened?" He proceeded to ask.

"The Storm King has destroyed Kirin Village." Kira replied sadly. "WHAT?!" Dusty yelped in shock. Kira merely nodded sadly before sitting on the cell's seat. "The village crumbled as we left and then we were all thrown in here." She explained as Harpie sat beside her sadly. "Not just all the younger Kirins were taken..." A random voice near them spoke out, causing Dusty to turn around to pinpoint the source.

Looking around the hull, Dusty saw that he Kira and Harpie weren't the only ones being held against their will. There were other species he had captured, all were very young and very frightened. There were all sorts of species like Gargoyles, Anthropomorphic Felines, Fish, Lizardfolk, parrots, yaks, griffons, mice and even some ponies. "We were captured when The Storm King invaded our lands too. Many of us were taken where he saw fit while the rest were taken from their villages." One of the cats said.

"Oh no! I just wanna go home! When can we go home? WHEN CAN WE GO HOME?!" One of the young gargoyles cried out in fear. "Pipe down you little runt!" Antemis yelled, banging on the cell in the process, causing the young one to calm down.

"Mendaxsssss, What should we do nexsssssst?" Isis hissed. "I dunno, but whatever it is, why don't we make an evil supper from these kids? Hehehehe" The scorpion replied, scaring them in the process. "Good Idea Mendaxsssss, we cannot let them starve, can't we?" The Serpent told him, licking his lips at each of the children. "MENDAX, ISIS, Where are you idiots? I need to talk to you about our destination!" The Storm King bellowed. "Coming oh mighty one, sheesh, why couldn't he get Antemis for the job?" Mendax muttered. Jaws then pulled a lever which unlocked the cells at once. "Alright runts, get on deck now. Our master is expecting you all to be up there. Now get moving!" Artemis spoke with seriousness, forcing some of the children out of their cells and in line. "Get up on the top deck! The boss wants to speak with you all." Jaws said with an evil grin.

After all the young ones were out on the top deck, they were all forced to sit down and listen as The Storm King came across to his best ship before standing in front of every one of them. "Hello you hideous freaks. You are all her because I want you to be. Many of you have gotten in our way with out business, " He spoke, frightening most of the young children and even enraging Dusty in the process.

"Now then, since you are all here...you will work all day on my ship, scrubbing the decks, washing the sails, preparing my meals and whatever else you are told. If I see anyone trying to goof off, try and escape, attempt a rebellion, or so much as tickle me in my sleep, I warn you...I will hunt you down. Now get to work, all of you!" The Storm King said, getting the poor kids to do his chores for him.

The Storm Guards kept their eyes on the poor kids to make sure they stood in line. Dusty and Kira had the job of scrubbing the deck of the ship whilst Harpie was locked in a cage below. All day, Kira looked at the poor cats getting punishments for doing only a slight thing wrong. Dusty even saw some of the lizards being made fun of when they still kept working.

* * *

It was horrible for everyone, even Dusty and Kira, everyday was the same, do the chores, have grub, do even more chores before being sent to their cells for a cold night sleep. This went on for days, even weeks...until one night after work, when everyone went into their cells. Dusty lay awake that night alongside Kira, thinking about everything that happened during the last couple of weeks. "What are we gonna do? This is no way to live." He said to himself, trying to figure a way out of the cell.

"There's no way out. He's gonna keep us against our will." One of the gargoyles spoke. Causing some of the young ones to panic silently. "No! Stop, I won't let him do this to us! We need to get out of here, and we'd better do it before anything bad happens." Dusty said with confidence, waking up everyone. "How, we can't get out while they've got the key to unlock the gate controls?" Whiskers questioned, when the gate controls themselves were on lockdown.

Looking around, Dusty saw that the bars were wide. "Did anyone try squeezing through the bars? This might be our only way of escaping." He stated, making everyone notice all at once. "He's right, how come we didn't notice this before?" Sweeps asked rhetorically as he tried fitting through the bars.

"It's no use, we'd have to be really small to fit through those bars. About the size of a harp seal." One of the griffons stated, barely managing to put his arm through the bars. Dusty then had an idea, it was stupid, but it might be able to work. "Harpie, would you mind fetching the key to the cells? It's a key, a long piece of iron with a hooky shape upon the end." Dusty asked, hoping the baby harp seal would know what he was talking about.

"Kid...you're actually talking to a clueless little seal." One of the lizards groaned. Harpie then nodded as she fit through the bars and went off to find the 'key', all the young ones had to do was wait. Eventually, Harpie returned...but instead, she held a little jug in her mouth. "Um...Harpie, that's not a key, it's a jug." Dusty said, annoyed at this. "He said key. It's this image right here." Kira said, trying to help Dusty out and drew an image of the key.

Harpie then set off again, then she came back few minutes later holding another random object in her mouth. "Ok...your harp seal is literally silly, that's a gold necklace she's got in her mouth." Whiskers complained. "Harpie, the item you're looking for is small, about this size, can you get them?" Dusty asked once again, feeling a little bad for putting a lot of pressure on Harpie.

But Harpie still went off to get the key without any trouble. But when she came back, she was holding what appeared to be, The Storm King's Boxers, with the picture of The Storm King himself on it. "No Harpie, that's not what we wanted you to get." Kira said, getting a little annoyed at the harp seal. Mainly because she was embarrassed upon looking at them. "Actually, We told him to get that." One of the Griffons from a cell close to them said. "What, why?" Dusty asked. "We wanted to see how he would react if his undies were gone." Another one said, mentioning that he was on his last pair for the week.

Dusty then got Harpie to go off again to find the key. When Harpie returned, she held a metal crocodile jaw in her mouth before dropping them in front of Dusty's cell with a loud clank. "Um...Harpie? What did you bring back this time?" Dusty asked, feeling a little nervous about the answer. "I think that's the crocodile's metal jaw." Kira said, seeing the familiar shape. "Harpie, I told you the key is small, try The Storm King's room, see if the key's there." Kira stated. "Oh, but leave the jaw here." Whiskers requested. "Wait...why?" Sweeps asked with a confusing angry look on his face. "So the Crocodile doesn't plan to eat us, and because it will seem funny without his jaws when he talks." Whiskers laughed insanely.

Scared by his attitude, the little white harp seal then went off to the Storm King's room to find the key and found loads of valuable items in there. When Harpie brought back another item however, it looked like a stone head, almost like it was shattered to pieces after being… Dusty and Kira looked in horror at each other. "Please tell me there's a bunch of statues on this ship that get broken every now and then." Dusty asked, hoping it wasn't what he thought it was. "Um...no?" Sweeps replied awkwardly. "Hmm...then let's agree to never speak about this to anyone." Dusty said, allowing everyone to agree with him at the same time.

"Ok, Harpie. You're getting closer this time, we are looking for this!" Dusty said, showing the picture of the key to the harp seal. Harpie then went into The Storm King's room and looked all around for the key. She then saw a shiny red apple and brought it back to Dusty and the group. Everyone in the cells were beginning to get annoyed at this point. But the apple did help when one of the kids got really hungry.

Before Dusty could get mad, Harpie took a hint and went back into The Storm King's room. She then spotted the key, around a small statue of himself. Hopping on the table, Harpie hoped to get the shiny object and nearly woke up the evil king, but luckily he was a heavy sleeper. Harpie then got close, opened her mouth and picked up a…..crown?! "That's not what you're looking for." A voice spoke behind Harpie, frightening her. She turned and saw someone standing there, it was actually The Storm King's son, Prince Zephyr looking seriously at the little seal.

* * *

Back in the cells

Everybody groaned when they heard Harpie return, but when they saw Prince Zephyr, they literally freaked out, thinking that he would expose their plan to his father. All of that fear went away however when Zephyr handed the key over to Dusty, who looked in absolute shock at him. "Why are you helping us? Shouldn't you be with The Storm King?" Dusty asked, trying to see what was happening.

"My Dad? Why would I be with a cruel and sinister beast like him? I may be the prince of storms, but I'm nothing like him." Zephyr said, stating an important fact. He then offered to open the cell doors to release the children and all at once, they opened. "We're free!" One of the griffons said aloud. "Shh, keep it down, there are guards nearby!" Zephyr said as he led the kids up to the deck.

"Where do we go now?" Sweeps asked, looking all around. "Over there, there's jet skiffs all along the side of the ship. We can use them to escape." One of the lizards stated with confidence, not wanting to waste her escape chance. Soon all the kids were freed and the skiffs were preparing to take off with all the stolen treasure from the villages.

Zephyr suggested they get going quickly before the guards woke up. Kira and the rest of her kind then loaded their family treasures up onto a skiff and prepared to take off back to Kirin Grove. All the while, Dusty stood motionless with Harpie looking at him. He did want to get off the ship, but he also felt that he couldn't allow The Storm King to conquer other lands in like this, but he didn't know what to do.

"Dusty, come on. We've got everything, let's go." Kira said, loading the last bit of her family's treasures from her village onto the skiff. "But Kira...if we don't do something now, another land will suffer this guy's wrath. I can't let that happen." Dusty said, not wanting to let more innocent folk suffer. "I'll take care of my dad, you listen to your friend here and go with her." Zephyr said, allowing Kira to go. "No, if you're staying, then so am I Dusty." Kira said firmly. "Yeah, I'll help too." Whiskers said along with his pal Sweeps. "Let me help too, my great grandfather was injured because of that beast, so I think it's time for a little payback." A gargoyle spoke from behind the cats.

Soon, all the children wanted to help Dusty out, even if it was going to be dangerous. Taken back by this, Dusty agreed to let the kids help, the way they cheered was strangely familiar to him...a kind of cheering which happened...two years ago...

Dusty then looked at one of the ponies, and saw what he thought was his old friend, Twilight Sparkle. But when he looked again, he saw that it was just a pegasus from Equestria who looked nothing like Twilight, her coat was a bit of blue and aqua blue and her mane and tail were coloured with dark blue with a little green mixed in it.

Realising that he was homesick...Dusty sighed a little before trying to figure out a plan. But the more he thought about it, the more he began to lose focus on the task ahead. Yet somehow, Dusty's necklace began to glow brightly.

" _Dusty..._ " A voice said from the necklace. Dusty looked at the jewels as the voice continued to speak. " _You've finally learned the secret to unlocking the powers of your necklace...Friendship, love, a pure heart, and the memories of your precious friendship._ " The voice spoke again.

" _Use the power of Manaiakalani well...it points to what you need the most...and never forget...you are the light within the darkness._ " Once the voice finished speaking, the necklace then detached itself from Dusty's necklace, with everyone watching as the gemstones floated, forming a strange constellation before they formed a huge hook.

The hook then floated onto the deck and lay motionless in front of Dusty before he picked it up with his claws. "What happened? Why did your necklace turn into that hook?" Kira asked with amazement. "I think...I unlocked it's power..." Dusty said with amazement. Dusty then noticed a constellation in the sky which looked the same shape as the hook did. Remembering what the voice said to him, Dusty tried using the power, thinking of a way to defeat The Storm King for now. Suddenly, he saw the constellation point towards a smoking mountain, giving him a perfect plan.

* * *

The Next Day

The Storm King's armada was preparing to ransack the next village they come across, Which happened to be part of a great kingdom. "Here it is master. The next kingdom as we saw on the maps." Antemis said, pointing to the kingdom in the distance. "Perfect...I can definitely feel the presence of magic within this place." The Storm King said metaphorically. "Sheesh, if only he could." Mendax muttered to himself. "Hey, uh...hath anyone theen Jawth' metal jaw? He can't find it anywhere." Grubber asked everyone. "Yeth, hath anyone theen it?" Jaws spoke in a lisp. It was a lot harder to speak without his metal jaw and without it he couldn't attack.

"Look...just check the lower deckssss for it, we're due for the invasion within the hour." Isis said with annoyance. Jaws then did so while some of the minions laughed at him. Everyone in the cells snickered when they heard Jaws speak without them. "Hey Boss, why aren't you wearing your special boxers?" Mendax asked. "Well now, you're the genius Mendax, so you tell me! I couldn't find them anyw...What is that?" The Storm King pointed over to Mendax's sack, seeing an item inside of it showing out.

"How did these get in here? I didn't..." Mendax said in panic. "YOU TOOK THEM?!" The Storm King said to the Scorpion, rearing up into his face. "No…." He squealed, knowing what would come next. The Storm King began to attack the scorpion, while everyone in the cells began to laugh. "My lord! My lord! I swear it wasn't...OW!" Mendax yelped in pain. "Try and take my stuff will you? Well this is what happens when you mess with me!" The Storm King yelled with annoyance. "Oh, this is so hilarious. It was my idea to put it in Mendax's bag." Sweeps whispered while snickering all the same.

"Alright, enough of that. Mendax, prepare for our invasion, make sure you find any magical items for our own taking!" The Storm King ordered, finished with his beating. Mendax despite the pain, then nodded in agreement, getting some of the minions to load their weapons. "And don't you dare take my stuff again!" The King reminded his minion. Jaws then found a metal jaw and rejoined the predators, Wolfkhan and his pack of howlers prepared to pounce on anyone who got in their way and most of all, The Storm King prepared...well...to do whatever he could.

In the town, many of the townsfolk noticed the armada heading their way when they heard the sound of thunder. Everyone panicked upon seeing them as the minions jumped down from multiple ships and started attacking the innocent. "Now then...time to storm the castle." Mendax said as he and the rest of the predators prepared to break down the castle gates.

But suddenly...

"Oi, Over here you anthropomorphic yeti!" A familiar voice yelled. The mighty king himself then looked towards the source of the voice along with his minions. The predators and Howlers then stopped attacking before looking towards the voice's source. Even including the townsfolk, they all saw The Storm King's best ship flying away from his armada with all of the children onboard. It was then that the king himself saw a familiar orange figure standing on the top of his ship.

After getting his telescope and looking through it. The Storm King saw that the figure was none other than the Hippogriff, Dusty Phoenix who was calling out towards him. "The way I see things, it's just us against you. So, you stop this madness now, I'll spare your life, simple as that." Dusty called out, trying to threaten The Storm King. "Hey...isn't that...the little bird thing you.." Mendax started calling up, only to be cut off when he was cut off by Isis, slapping him with his bare tail. "How...how did...?" The Storm King wondered. Zephyr kept quiet about all this, not wanting to blow the whole thing, Still, he was glad to help Dusty.

"I told you before, ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES!" Dusty yelled before swinging down from the flag post and onto the deck where he raised a flag with the same symbol as his scarf had on it, laughing with hope. "What?!" The King himself said, he then growled in anger as he crushed his telescope with his bare hands. "STOP HIM!" He bellowed to his minions. "FOR CANTERLOT!" Dusty yelled as he steered the ship towards the volcano with his magical fish hook in his claw. The children then got to work in setting sail towards the volcano. The armada then changed course and came after Dusty, relieving the kingdom of a great threat.

The Storm King had Wolfkhan go first with his own flagship following behind him. "After him! We've got to get all those treasures back!" He bellowed, demanding to crush that little sneak once and for all. All the while the citizens were cheering for whoever saved them from the armada and rejoiced because of this.

* * *

A while later

Dusty and the young ones headed towards the mountain, which was revealed to be a volcano in close range, with the Storm Armada following and the Howler ship following dangerously behind. "Follow him in!" Wolfkhan ordered, speaking to his brotherhood as they continued to chase the ship towards the volcano. Dusty looked back to see Wolfkhan's ship following a close range. "Everyone hang on, this might get a little bumpy!" The young hippogriff called out as everyone saw the volcano's widely open top coming up.

Dusty then got everyone to tie themselves to any pole or anything built onto the ship before "Prepare to brace yourselves, on my mark." Dusty said, waiting for the right time to throw the line at the mountain's top. But the whole ship was on a dangerous collision course with the volcano in front of them. "I think he's trying to knock us in!" One of the wolves said with fear. "No! We must claim him, for our master!" Wolfkhan said, preparing to fire the harpoon at the ship.

"Alright, Now! Hang on everyone!" Dusty called out, turning the helm of the ship before running straight for the front of the ship and using his hook for the first time. Upon reaching the front, Dusty threw the hook onto a top of the mountain which grappled it tightly and with his strength as half phoenix, managed to tie the rope around the hull of the ship. When this happened, it caused the ship to move around the mountain like a u-turn. Everyone tried desperately to hold onto the ship and they managed to hold on, even with the cargo tumbling all over the ship.

"Wow, this is really amazing." Kira laughed with excitement, taking note to Dusty's amazing abilities as she held onto Harpie. "Hold on Celi!" One of the parrots yelled to a younger parrot who clutched him tightly. Wolfkhan saw the ship doing a powerful U-turn and attempted to do the same. "Bootleg turn!" He growled as he took the helm. Unfortunately, he failed in doing so because of a slight hesitation from his crew member. "WE'LL NEVER MAKE IT BROTHER WOLF!" One of the wolves yelped with fear.

All the while, The Storm Armada followed as the howler ship failed to make the bootleg turn. "What's that stupid wolf doing?!" One of the minions asked with shock. Wolfkhan meanwhile tried turning the ship, but somehow the rudder was jammed because of something stuck inside the gears. "NO!" Wolfkhan screamed, desperately trying to turn the ship, but as he looked back, Wolfkhan saw Dusty waving to him almost like the young hippogriff was mocking him. But in reality, Dusty was trying to warn him not to enter the volcano. Wolfkhan didn't listen anyway, snarling in anger as the ship headed straight for the top of the volcano.

Once Wolfkhan and his minions entered the volcano with the ship, the wood holding it together started burning up. The ship then started to lose altitude because of the immense heat within which caused it to crash off the side of the volcano's rocky walls and caused explosions from within the ship's hull. In turn, several of his minions tried escaping, but ended up getting crushed by rocks and most of them tried abandoning ship, but they landed on the rock platform before they were trapped in caves and more or less caved in. The howler ship went down, sinking into the lava with no signs of stopping. Wolfkhan tried escaping, but unfortunately got crushed by molten rocks which fell from the rear end of the volcano.

The volcano then erupted, causing a slight chain reaction which seemed to involve a little hint of magic. All the while, The Storm King watched in horror at the fate which Wolfkhan and his minions had without warning. "Wow...let me guess, too hot for them to handle?" Medax joked without warning. Isis grabbed a stick and whacked him on the head with it. "Ow. What? Too soon?" He yelped in annoyance. A lot of fireballs suddenly started spitting out of the volcano and wrecked many of the ships in the armada, causing them to lose altitude and fall to the ground. Even now, the armada was in danger of being destroyed. "Boss, what do we do?! Gravelite scared?" Gravelite said with fear. Mendax, Jaws, Grubber and Isis then tried taking cover from the fireballs with more or less injuries.

"Rrgh! Retreat for now." The Storm King growled angrily, getting his minions to get out of range from the volcano before he ran over to his balcony and looked over towards his best ship where Dusty Phoenix was. "YOU MISERABLE BIRD! YOU'VE DESTROYED HALF MY ARMADA, RUINED MY PLANS AND EVERYTHING ELSE! MARK MY WORDS, I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN, I'LL HAVE MY PREDATORS DESTROY YOU LIKE YOU DID TO MY ARMADA. AND YOU CANNOT STOP ME FROM RULING EVERY SINGLE LAND, KINGDOM OR VILLAGE THAT I COME ACROSS. I AM THE STORM KING, RULER OF ALL. FROM THIS DAY FORTH, YOU ARE MY ENEMY, THE ONLY FUGITIVE I WILL CRUSH, THE ONE I WILL BE RID OF!" He roared, vowing his revenge on Dusty.

"Keep blabbing, you overgrown monkey, because my friends and I are able to accomplish anything together, something you wouldn't understand about!" Dusty replied back to The Storm King as his armada landed on the ground to avoid the volcano's fireballs. When the armada had gone, Dusty had set a course for Kirin Grove to return the tree and the jewel. When this happened, some of the young ones decided to thank him. "Ahem." Sweeps said nervously, holding out a small key with multiple changing parts.

"Hmm? What's this?" Dusty asked, curious to why Sweeps put one of his trinkets from Abyssinia in front of him. "It's a token...for our appreciation for you saving us. It's useful in the worst of situations." Sweeps explained. A second afterwards, the other kids gave Dusty an item each. One of the gargoyles was next in line to give him an item. "This small box, contains a very powerful artifact, like your small gem around your neck. But the box will only open when you need it most." She spoke, laying it down with the key.

Next, one of the lizards gave Dusty Jaws' metal jaw that had been turned into a shovel with enough items. One of the griffons handed Dusty a small statue. "A statue, that's it? How can this be useful?" Dusty said curiously. "In a really dark place, or at a really dark night, this item is the key that can shine so bright." the Griffon spoke in rhyme. The Fish then handed Dusty a clam with quite a bit of room in it and a shell themed horn, when the hippogriff tried it, the horn seemed to sound as beautiful as a gentle breeze. "What's the horn for?" Dusty asked. "Anytime you're in trouble, just blow it. Our ancestor's will help you in your situation with their power in the wayer." The fish said, before asking to be taken back to Klugetown.

Yaks gave Dusty an ancient pair of rings. "These are capable of echolocation when you close your eyes or when you are in a dark cave." They explained, Dusty figured they'd come in handy when the time came. The parrots generously offered Dusty their jewels, saying that they'll give him a good price when selling them for money. "I was going to save these jewels to help my daughter, Celaeno, but you might need them more, Dusty." The Parrot Captain said. "Oh...I couldn't. I mean, if your daughter..." Dusty began, only to be cut off by the young female parrot. "It's ok Dusty. Just take them. We have more." The young parrot called Celaeno said, stroking Dusty's feathers.

Prince Zephyr's gift to Dusty before he went back to his father was a lightning bolt charm. Zephyr mentioned that it knew when danger was coming and would warn the user instantly. "I owe you one Zephyr." Dusty muttered to himself. And last of all, Kira gave the young hippogriff a strange carved branch. "It's a family heirloom, this is a freshly shed Kirin horn from our first ancestors" She started. "But, this. This is the only thing left of my family. I never saw my parents after they vanished. So, Nana decided to give it to me. She thought that it was what they wanted for me. She said it would also give the power of all our ancestors to the user." After explaining this, Kira then whispered in Dusty's ear. "Give this to your friend...she'll need it." After speaking, Dusty got a little emotional before he calmed.

"Thank you...thank you all. I couldn't have come up with this plan without your help. I know you all couldn't do much when I turned the ship, but still you helped. And we'll be a lot safer once I get you all back to your homelands of origin." Dusty said. "Hey, each of us gave a gift to you, but isn't there one for each of us?" said the fish. "My gift, to each of you. Is my friendship. It's the most powerful thing you'll ever want. I know it might seem like nothing, but believe me, it's more powerful than you think." The young hippogriff explained. Everyone agreed with him, including Harpie who barked happily at him. Then, setting a course for Kirin Grove, Dusty had to return the tree and the jewel to its rightful owners.

"Wait, we're going back to the village? But the Storm King might be setting an ambush there. He might take the tree back." Kira said, fearing the worst. "Don't worry, after that volcano erupted, there's no way The Storm King will be heading back to the village for a while." Dusty said, reminding Kira about that stunt he pulled.

* * *

Back at Kirin Grove

Dusty gave back the tree and the jewel to the Kirins, and this time the jewel was safe for good with their help. "Thank you, Kind Hippogriff. You have returned our village's most sacred items to their rightful place. Can we repay you?" The village leader said with a grateful attitude. "No, need. Unless, Kira would like to join me on my adventures?" He said, looking at Kira who was shocked at first. "Really? I can join you? I don't know." Kira said with disbelief. "My mission isn't just to find my family, it's to help others who were outcasted and unloved. There's no reason why you're any different." Dusty said, causing Kira to suddenly hug him without warning.

"I...I'd love to" she cried, quickly letting go of Dusty awkwardly. "Thank you Dusty. I don't mean to say this, but aside from Nana, You're the bestest friend I ever had." She said, knowing that Dusty would take care of her no matter what. Kira then ran off to her old home to collect a few items for the journey before she returned to the young Hippogriff. "I also got plenty of food for our trip. And..and my journal. And my teddy. And.." She spoke, until being cut off by Dusty. "Hold it girl, you don't need that much stuff. Just a few items. Plus…" Dusty leaned to her ear and whispered in it. "There's more in the ship." He spoke. This caused Kira to grin with excitement.

"That hippogriff is really something." The village leader said, looking at Dusty's ship sailing away. Suddenly, Nana's spirit appeared for one last time. " _Indeed he is. He'll be our hope for harmony and peace._ " She said, causing everyone to notice her. "Nana?" Kira said, looking down at the waving spirit. " _Hello again little one._ " She spoke, floating over to Kira. "How...how are you here?" Kira asked back, immediately hugging her in the process. " _I am here, because you are here._ " Nana explained, not making sense but meaning that she came to see Kira one last time. " _I know you are upset that I left you, but you must understand why, and when your time comes, you'll understand too._ " After explaining, Nana gave one last kiss on Kira's forehead before disappearing with her ancestors.

Kira was sad by this, but happy that her grandmother had looked after her for all these years. It even changed the attidude of all the kirins in the village and they bid her farewell. Dusty then boarded the ship along with Harpie, Kira then followed behind after saying farewell to her kind. Then With Dusty and Kira continuing their quest with Harpie, they had many challenges to face in the future, but only time will tell for Dusty to find the rest of his kind.

For now, Dusty decided to lay low and help out everyone who was outcasted until the time came for him to fulfill his destiny as a Hippogriff.

THE END...for now

* * *

 **Epilogue**

Back inside the volcano

The ship of the Howlers had sunk into the lava with only the blimp sticking out of it, all the wolves were burned, and Wolfkhan's crushed body lay motionless.

" _Revenge…._ " A voice whispered in the air, and at the same time, the volcano magically lit up, like it was haunted.

" _I was The Storm King's right hand wolf...but you took it all away from me..._ " The voice whispered again, this time it almost seemed like some of the wolves were moving, though they were motionless.

" _Now you think you can forget me in fear, try and move on from your mistakes? No...this was supposed to be my time._ " The voice sounding more and more scarier in the wind, causing the wolves to rise up, looking more like fiery golem shaped wolves who growled.

" _You might think I've gone..._ " Upon speaking, Wolfkhan's paw twitched a little. " _But I'll always haunt you! I am the fiery hatred, I am fear, I am the volcano, I! Am! Lavan!_ " Wolfkhan's paw suddenly rose up, breaking all the rocks upon the body. Inside, a fiery golem lay, lava holding all the rocks together before bright yellow eyes suddenly shot open as a growl suddenly echoed throughout the volcano.

" _And this time...I'll make sure that nothing will stand in my way!_ " The golem roared.

 _ **Dusty Phoenix, Kira and Harpie will return**_

 _ **In Mlp The Movie**_

* * *

 ** _And that just about wraps up this story everyone ^^_**

 ** _Stay tuned for the next story after this one: Fizz Lightning - The Lost Island_**

 ** _For now though, stay awesome everyone_**

 ** _Negaboss2000 out_**


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